Statement on Gov. Whitmer’s Steadfast Efforts to Protect Reproductive Freedom in Michigan

For Immediate Release
April 7, 2022

EMILY's List Statement on Gov. Whitmer's Steadfast Efforts to Protect Reproductive Freedom in Michigan

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer brought a lawsuit on behalf of her constituents in order to protect the right to abortion in the state. Michigan currently has a 1931 pre-Roe law on the books that would go into effect and criminalize abortion as manslaughter if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the precedent in Roe v. Wade. Due to the urgency, Gov. Whitmer is using her unique Executive Message power to ask the Michigan Supreme Court to take up the case and issue a ruling that the 1931 law criminalizing abortion violates the state constitution. EMILYs List President Laphonza Butler released the following statement in response to these efforts: 

“Today is a strong reminder of the value of electing Democratic pro-choice women who are leading the fight to ensure their constituents have access to the health care they deserve. EMILYs List commends Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for using her position to fiercely defend the constitutional right to abortion for all Michiganders. Her proactive leadership to safeguard abortion and ensure Michigan doesn’t have one of the most extreme bans in the country should be a lesson on how to protect access as we work to stop anti-abortion legislators from taking away our rights. 

“With the U.S. Supreme Court positioned to overturn Roe, electing Democratic pro-choice women up and down the ballot is more essential then ever. EMILYs List is proud to have endorsed Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for her reelection to ensure Michigan continues to have a tenacious defender of reproductive freedom at its helm.”

EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $700 million to elect Democratic pro-choice women candidates. With a grassroots community of over five million members, EMILY's List helps Democratic women win competitive campaigns – across the country and up and down the ballot – by recruiting and training candidates, supporting and helping build strong campaigns, researching the issues that impact women and families, running nearly $50 million in independent expenditures in the last cycle alone, and turning out women voters and voters of color to the polls. Since our founding in 1985, we have helped elect the country's first woman as vice president, 159 women to the House, 26 to the Senate, 16 governors, and more than 1,300 women to state and local office. More than 40% of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. After the 2016 election, more than 60,000 women reached out to EMILY's List about running for office laying the groundwork for the next decade of candidates for local, state, and national offices. In our effort to elect more women in offices across the country, we have created our Run to Win program, expanded our training program, including a Training Center online, and trained thousands of women.