Proposal 3 would entail providing a state constitutional right to reproductive freedom for all people across the state of Michigan. This would protect women’s rights to their own body and to make the decision over their body based on their personal beliefs and situations. With the recent events of Roe vs. Wade being overturned by the Supreme Court, which protected women’s rights nationally to reproductive freedom, the issue has been left up to the states. Michigan has a constitutional law that was inactive due to Roe vs. Wade. It stated that no abortion is legal within the state of Michigan with no exception for rape or incest. This law was made in 1931. Proposal 3 will stop this act from being the legal status in Michigan and will protect women’s bodies and rights to an abortion up until the fetus is viable outside of the womb (which was Roe vs Wade’s prior ruling). Proposal 3 is essential to protecting human rights in Michigan. The right to one’s body is one of extreme importance and allowing one to choose what to with their body should not be up to the government.
Abortion bans unproportionately affect women of color, especially black women. Black women overall are more likely to die from pregnancy or childbirth than any other race. As abortion is limited, black maternal mortality increases by 30 percent and poverty rates increase by 20 percent, according to the Texas Tribune. Black women will be severely affected by the banning of abortion because they are less likely to be able to access one outside of the state while also rising prices in things, such as gas, makes it nearly impossible for women of low income to travel to receive a needed medical service. By not allowing abortion in any circumstance, there will be a raise in death from not only unsafe pregnancies, but unsafe abortions. Annually, about 68,000 women die yearly from unsafe abortions, which increases as abortions are becoming illegal, according to the National Library of Medicine. Overall, banning abortion does not save any lives. While some say the unborn fetus’ life is being taken, Proposal 3 protects the lives of the fetuses after they are able to live on their own. While the fetus is still reliant on the woman’s survival, if the mother dies, then, an actual life is lost. Proposal 3 protects all people from the government controlling what one can and can not do with their body.