GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Governor Gretchen Whitmer made a stop in Grand Rapids Monday, urging state lawmakers to pass sweeping new protections for abortion access.
The roundtable -- held in conjunction with state and local leaders – represented a continuation of efforts launched after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
In response, Whitmer and the state legislature moved to repeal the state's 90-year-old abortion ban in April 2023.
The Reproductive Health Act as its called will be up for debate in the legislature this fall.
The package is comprehensive, containing, in total, around a dozen bills.
The measures would scrap the current mandatory waiting period, which is 24-hours and requires what's called an ‘informed consent form,’ which would also be scrapped under the rewrite.
Medicaid would be permitted to step-in in cases involving families who qualify as low-income.
The act would also streamline the process with regard to private insurance coverage.
Certain restrictions on the clinics themselves, if the legislation is adopted, would also be eliminated.
Whitmer referred to the stable of state statutes that remained in place at the time of publication as barriers undermining access to critical services:
“Our job now is to level those barriers,” Whitmer related. “That's why we can't stop. We can't think that the work is done. We have to continue to be vigilant, not just in getting the RFA passed, but also thwarting any other efforts to compromise a woman's ability to make her own decisions about her body.”
In response to a question from reporters, asking whether Whitmer would consider the bills individually, the governor provided the following guidance:
“I'm not going to pick and choose,” she explained. “I'm not going to say that I can live with this or not that. I want to see the whole package at my desk.”
Whitmer also touched on the Israel-Hamas war, which broke out over the weekend and progress in the ongoing UAW strike.
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