Michigan moved fast to protect reproductive rights—twice. But the 2024 election could change it all

Even when abortion was legally protected under Roe v. Wade, it wasn’t completely secure. In Michigan, women seeking abortion care frequently had to drive seven hours or more from the state’s Upper Peninsula to Flint or Detroit, because laws designed to chip away at reproductive rights made it almost impossible for abortion clinics to exist in many rural parts of the state. Those laws, which had been on the books for more than a decade, were incredibly hard to remove.

Then came the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Though it significantly curtailed abortion access across the country, it also provided momentum for legislative change. And Michigan has become the prime example of a battleground state that took an expedited path to safeguarding reproductive rights.

“Michigan is not unique in terms of its support for reproductive rights,” says Laurie Pohutsky, a Democratic member of the Michigan House of Representatives. “But Michigan is unique in the way that it showed other states how they can make sure that those protections are enshrined.”

In 2022, it became the first state post-Roe to secure abortion rights via a citizen-led ballot initiative. This year, it claimed another first when it passed a bill protecting all forms of assisted reproduction, including IVF, another issue that’s become a campaign talking point. “We were prepared,” says Pohutsky, who helped pass the abortion bill. “I never felt like we were scrambling.”

But abortion and IVF will still be still under threat if Trump wins; a possible national abortion ban would overturn even Michigan’s victories. Advocates warn Michiganders not to get complacent at the ballot box this November—and are waiting to see whether other states w follow their example.

After Dobbs: Action on abortion

Historically, Michigan had one of the most draconian abortion bans: a 1931 law that made it a felony for doctors and nurses to assist with abortion. The overturning of Roe, via the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, reactivated the 90-year-old law.

Immediately, the state took action. In November 2022, it passed a citizen-led ballot initiative that enshrined the right to abortion in the state’s constitution.

“There is no way that I can overstate how important [Dobbs] was,” Pohutsky says, adding she had never seen that level of mobilization, as organizers and volunteers collected at least 750,000 signatures on the ballot petition. “The energy, and frankly anger, was palpable.”

It was a “unicorn of a ballot initiative,” says Merissa Kovach, political director of the ACLU of Michigan, in that it single-handedly attracted voters to the polls. Seventy-three percent of female voters in the state said reproductive rights were very or somewhat important to their choice to vote in 2022.

In driving voters to the polls, it also helped install a blue majority in both the House and Senate. Along with Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who was first elected in 2018, it created a Democratic trifecta in a state that used to be deep red. “Much credit to flipping the legislature to Democratic control for the first time in 40 years is to that ballot initiative,” Kovach says.

That majority helped when it became clear that enshrining abortion rights wasn’t the end of the story. The 1931 ban was technically still on the books. “There were abortion opponents who flat-out said they would still prosecute people under this law,” Pohutsky says. “It wasn’t enough to rely on [the constitutional amendment].”

In addition, there were a series of so-called TRAP laws (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers). Present in 23 states, and in Michigan since 2012, these laws were intended to make abortion more difficult during Roe. They were formulated “under the guise of improving patient safety, by implying that abortion care is dangerous,” says Halley Crissman, an OBGYN at the University of Michigan, and an associate medical director at Planned Parenthood of Michigan. They made abortion access out of reach for many, essentially eliminating it as a viable option.

The most notable TRAP law in Michigan required all facilities that performed abortions to be licensed surgical centers, despite abortion not being a surgical procedure, Crissman says. Centers had to satisfy strict building codes, including hallway widths, ceiling heights, and sizes of bathrooms and janitors’ closets.

In many rural areas with low populations, it was too expensive to build these centers, so there was no abortion care north of Flint. Many women drove for hours to the Lower Peninsula for care. “Abortion care is extremely safe,” Crissman says, “and none of those surgical facility laws have ever been shown to make abortion care safer.”

In 2023, the Democrats repealed the 1931 ban, as well as most (but not all) of the TRAP laws. Crissman says access is already expanding. The first Planned Parenthood clinic is due to open soon in Grand Rapids, a relatively conservative area. And Planned Parenthood has recently certified about 20 advanced practice providers across the state to provide abortion care.

Michigan’s legislation is now far more airtight than in most other states that have recently addressed abortion, where laws are more vulnerable. Ohio passed a constitutional enshrinement of abortion, but without the reinforcement that Michigan provided with its 2023 law. In Kansas and Kentucky, citizens voted against ballot proposals suggesting there is no constitutional right to abortion. Those only create hypothetical paths to legislation; in Kentucky, that means its outright ban on abortion still exists.

After Alabama: IVF initiatives

In February, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos are living beings and can’t be disposed of (even though this is a necessary part of IVF). It also ruled that IVF clinics could be held liable for their loss. Again, Michigan Democrats moved quickly.

Though Alabama’s governor later signed a bill allowing IVF to proceed, some of the few clinics in the state are still due to close. “Once you have legislation that makes an embryo a person, that will destroy IVF,” says Samantha Steckloff, a Democratic member of the Michigan House of Representatives who helped craft the state’s bill, and has used IVF herself.

Since Alabama, so-called personhood bills—which classify embryos as humans— have been enacted or introduced in at least 16 states. “[It’s] something we’ve been bringing up for years that no one would listen to,” Steckloff says. “When we talk about the protection of IVF, this isn’t a boogeyman argument. This is a real-life concern.”

Again, Michigan was a step ahead. In April, it passed a bill protecting IVF—the first in the nation to do so. It came about as part of overcoming another reproductive roadblock that’s endured in the state for years: legalizing paid surrogacy. “Without IVF, you don’t have surrogacy,” Jones says.

Michigan has been the only state in the nation where there’s a criminal ban on paid surrogacy. That 1988 law made it a felony to pay a surrogate to carry your child; many people turned to friends or family members to be their surrogates for free, which was the only option. Even then, the biological parents were often left off the birth certificates, and had to then legally adopt their own child. “Michigan has been living in this loophole for almost 40 years,” says Stephanie Jones, founder of the Michigan Fertility Alliance.

Steckloff herself was 31, starting out in her lawmaking career, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She realized it wouldn’t be safe for her to carry children, and would have to go the surrogacy route. “The most difficult part of that diagnosis was finding out that I was no longer in charge of my own family planning,” she says.

She started initial processes of IVF: she had her eggs harvested, and then frozen; though it came at a cost of $20,000, she felt secure that she could potentially start a family in the future—and hopes to do so once the new bill goes into effect early next year. “Any person going through the hell that is infertility knows that an embryo is not a child,” Steckloff says.

The bill that Steckloff and Jones helped design not only legalized paid surrogacy, but also protected the right to IVF and all forms of assisted reproduction (including IUI, which Tim and Gwen Walz used to conceive), and the right of same-sex and unmarried couples to access the same care. They had the bill ready when the Alabama ruling came down. “Because of that timing, we were able to take advantage of the national spotlight on IVF and move it forward,” Steckloff says.

The stakes for 2024

The politicization of women’s reproductive choices is nothing new in 2024, but Republicans have been shying away from the issue publicly, aware that abortion access tends to be a winning issue even in red states. Polling from August showed 63% of all adults say abortion should be legal, and it’s the number-one issue for almost a quarter of female voters. So Democrats can afford to be “loud and proud” about the issue, Kovach says.

This year, there are ballot initiatives around abortion in 10 states, including swing states Arizona and Nevada, as well as in Florida, which some of the more hopeful Democrats think might be in play this year for Kamala Harris. Those results—and whether they ultimately help Harris at the top of the ticket—will indicate if the momentum is as strong as it was after Dobbs.

In Michigan, voters view the matter as settled. Survey data from July shows 60% of Michigan women voters say abortion is decided. This year, only 10% consider it the most important campaign matter, after inflation, democracy, and immigration.

But Democrats say it’s a mistake to get too comfortable, and that both abortion rights and IVF will be in the firing line if Donald Trump wins—even in states like Michigan, where a national abortion ban would nullify the state’s laws. “Our state constitution cannot fight a national abortion ban,” Pohutsky says. “It is by no means settled.”

Project 2025, the conservative agenda laid out by the Heritage Foundation, also attacks reproductive rights. It targets abortion pills, says abortion is not healthcare, and supports the rights of fetuses and embryos, which could threaten IVF.

Publicly, Trump has said abortion is up to the states, and that he would veto a national abortion ban—but he has flip-flopped constantly. He’s also u-turned on IVF, now saying he would make insurance companies cover it. “The problem is you can’t really trust anything he says,” Steckloff says. “He’s against universal healthcare, but he’s going to provide IVF for everyone. How is that even possible?”

Even if Trump doesn’t win, Pohutsky says Republicans will continue to find ways to chip away at reproductive rights. “To be completely honest, these are fights we are going to have to fight for the rest of my lifetime.”