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Abortion Rights Advocates Push Lawmakers To Put Question On Ballot

Abortion rights advocates were at the state Capitol Thursday to ask lawmakers not to vote on a controversial abortion measure.

As The Michigan Public Radio Network’s Rick Pluta reports, that would allow the measure to, instead, go on the 2014 ballot.

Abortion rights groups want to stop the petition-initiated bill from becoming a law through a vote in the Legislature.

Meghan Hodge Groen is with Planned Parenthood.

“Our folks will be out there and letting legislators know that this is a vote that they will not forget, that this is something that we will remember in the next election,” she said.

Republican state Representative Mike Shirkey says lawmakers are more likely to pay a political price if they ignore the petition and allow the question to go to the ballot.

“I know the votes are there because we have a very strong right-to-life caucus,” he says.  “I’m not concerned about whether the votes are there or not.”

Governor Rick Snyder vetoed a similar measure last year, but voter-initiated laws are not subject to a governor’s veto.

Rick Pluta is Senior Capitol Correspondent for the Michigan Public Radio Network. He has been covering Michigan’s Capitol, government, and politics since 1987. His journalism background includes stints with UPI, The Elizabeth (NJ) Daily Journal, The (Pontiac, MI) Oakland Press, and WJR. He is also a lifelong public radio listener.
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