Reproductive Freedom

The ACLU works to ensure that every person can make the best decision for themselves and their family about whether and when to have a child without undue political interference. Through litigation, advocacy, and public education, we strive to ensure that every person has the opportunity to make a real decision and the ability to get the care they need. Our work focuses on a range of issues, including protecting access to affordable contraception, protecting a person’s ability to make personal, private decisions about pregnancy and abortion, and fighting pregnancy discrimination.

The ACLU of Michigan works in coalition with organizations across the state to promote proactive reproductive health care policies. Most recently, we took a lead role in mounting and passing Proposal 3 of 2022, which ensures the fundamental right to reproductive freedom for all Michiganders in our state constitution. In recent past years, we have lead in addressing the harm imposed on patients in Michigan when healthcare providers allow religious doctrine to dictate care, rather than medical standards. In Lansing, we are on the front lines combatting policies that restrict access to reproductive health care and we have a network of attorneys dedicated to protecting reproductive freedom.

In 2022, voters made it clear when they passed Proposal 3 that the right to abortion and comprehensive reproductive healthcare is valued and must be protected. But laws that make it difficult if not impossible for a person to get an abortion if they need one, particularly if they are poor, are currently written into law in Michigan. The right to abortion means nothing, if someone cannot access care when they need it.

That is why The Reproductive Health Act (RHA) is needed in Michigan. This law will ensure access to safe, legal abortion in Michigan for anyone who needs it. It guarantees that people are free to make their own medical decisions without certain politicians interfering. The RHA ensures abortion is treated like all health care, with regulations that reflect current medical standards by repealing and updating Michigan’s outdated and unconstitutional laws restricting access to abortion such as:

• Bans on public and private insurance coverage for abortion
• Only physicians can perform abortions and not other qualified health care professionals
• Expensive and medically unnecessary requirements that facilities that provide abortions be licensed as freestanding surgical outpatient facilities
• A state-mandated 24-hour waiting period
• Unnecessary barriers to accessing medication abortion via telemedicine
• Requires minors in need of an abortion to receive parental consent or navigate an onerous judicial bypass process
• Requirements that patients seeking abortion care receive biased, medically inaccurate information written by the state

Take action by contacting your lawmakers and urging them to pass the Reproductive Health Act