A Michigan ballot measure aims to write legalised abortion into the state constitution. Will voters be able to grasp the proposed amendment when they cast their ballots, though?
Opponents of the proposition call it a “hodgepodge of senseless nonsense” and a “word salad” of “incomprehensible argle-bargle” and claim it is so rife with typos that the state should remove it from the Nov. 8 ballot.
A representative for Citizens to Support MI Women and Children, a coalition of pro-life organisations opposed to the plan, claimed on August 16 that the amendment’s wording is “packed with run-on sentences that are nonsensical, making an already complicated amendment hard to grasp.”
She said, “Amending the Constitution is serious business, but these folks didn’t even take the time to review their own wording.
The organisation cites 43 typographical problems in the document, citing, for example, the lines “DECISIONSABOUTALLMATTERSRELATINGTOPRENANCY,” “ORALLEGEDPREGNANCYOUTCOMES,” and “THEREISASIGNIFICANTLIKELIHOOD,” which all lack spaces between the words.
How will the amendment affect abortion?
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel, both Democrats, support the measure, which is referred to as the Reproductive Freedom for All Amendment.
It would create a “new individual right to reproductive freedom, including [the] right to make and carry out all pregnancy choices, including abortion,” according to its 92-word description. All state legislation that are in contradiction with the amendment would be declared invalid under the bill.
Although the amendment prohibits abortion “after foetal viability,” critics warn that the exceptions would permit late-term abortion for any reason unless done to “protect a patient’s life or physical or mental health.”
The Citizens to Support MI Women and Children organisation, of which the Michigan Catholic Conference is a co-chair, is opposed to the proposed change.
The Michigan Catholic Conference stated in a bulletin dated August 19 that the proposal “would allow abortion all the way through pregnancy, remove parental consent for minors seeking abortions, permit non-physicians to perform abortions, and more.”
Reproductive Freedom for All, the organisation spearheading the effort to pass the proposed amendment, spokeswoman Darci McConnell said the group was “confident that we’re in compliance with all legal requirements for ballot proposals.”
The petition in favour of reproductive freedom for everyone had been read, comprehended, and signed by hundreds of thousands of people, she said.
Citizens for Michigan The wording of the proposed amendment that was sent to voters, according to Women and Children, differs from the one that the Michigan Board of State Canvassers conditionally authorised earlier this year.
The canvassers board, a section of the state’s election bureau, is responsible for regulating statewide ballot proposals and certifying state elections.
At its next meeting on August 31, the board is anticipated to determine whether to certify the abortion proposition for the November ballot.