News & Commentary

Politicians in Michigan are at it again – pushing a revised version of the sweeping anti-abortion bill that could threaten to close women’s health care centers. We beat back this bill before and now it is urgent these state lawmakers hear from us once more. They silenced female legislators from speaking out in opposition to this bill. They prevented over 90 women from testifying against legislation that will directly affect them. They are ramming this bill through at the last possible moment in this year’s legislative session, despite public outcry.  And worse, today legislators locked out members of the public, including the ACLU of Michigan’s own legislative director and others who wanted to advocate against the bill.

A lame-duck session of the Michigan Legislature occurs whenever one of the chambers meets after its legislative successors are elected, but before their terms begin. This is the last opportunity for representatives to get priority legislation passed, which usually makes for a hectic, short period of time where anything can happen. This year, the Michigan House of Representatives is in lame-duck (Nov. 7th-Dec 31st), with 28 new representatives on their way to Lansing for the new term. Stay tuned for a profile of each new member in a future Capitol Watchdog post. But for now, here's some lame-duck legislation that we're watching that you should know about:

Whether and when to have children is about the most deeply personal and intimate decision a person can make. When we chose to start a family many years ago, my husband and I discussed our own health and energy and the state of our relationship and our finances. As people of faith and stewards of God’s creation, we talked about religious and moral considerations. While we spoke about these personal, intimate questions, I didn’t expect my boss to insist on weighing in on that discussion. But that’s what's happening to some employees. Some business owners are claiming that including birth control in their employees’ health insurance benefits in compliance with the Affordable Care Act would violate their religious freedom – even when their employees do not share their beliefs. This refusal has real consequences. After a series of miscarriages, my aunt and uncle made the difficult decision to use birth control despite the position of their church on the issue. After being cautioned about the potentially dire consequences of another pregnancy, my aunt recognized that contraception was essential to her continued health. I do not think most people would say her boss had a right to participate in that discussion. Contraception is a key part of women’s health care. Excluding it from health insurance coverage burdens women alone with its excessive cost, despite the positive impact family planning has on the health and financial security of both mother and family. As in my aunt’s case, contraception can protect a woman’s life. Sometimes it is prescribed for acne, migraines, or endometriosis – will it be excluded for those purposes, too? As a person of faith, it is offensive to me that some employers believe that their religious faith and beliefs deserve greater consideration than their employees. Why should one set of beliefs prevail over another? If employers are allowed to refuse contraception, what will be the limit of employer-driven exclusions? Some religious faiths refuse blood transfusions: would they be permitted to refuse to cover employees' lifesaving health needs? Could a religious teetotaler refuse to cover illnesses or injuries arising out of alcohol use? Employees don't give up their personal morals when taking a job. They are entitled to make their own health care decisions according to their own beliefs and values. That's the law: the Affordable Care Act says that comprehensive health insurance must include contraception. Making sure this law is followed doesn't violate employer's religious freedoms, it simply honors the religious beliefs and health decisions of individual employees and their families.

As Michigan legislators saw other states quickly upping the ante with extreme war on women policies like personhood amendments and vaginal probe laws, they must have grown tired of our state merely being a face in the crowd.So what else is there to do but dole out their own special brand of bat-crackers crazy in the form of Michigan's outrageous, monster War on Women Mega Bill.We’ve written about the War on Women Mega Bill before, which combines every attack on women's health into the greatest assault on reproductive rights in our state’s history.Initially, we tried to take the more traditional routes: we packed committee rooms with supporters but were denied the opportunity to testify; we proposed amendments to the bills only to witness our female, pro-choice allies in the House get banned from speaking; we recruited credible experts to testify against the bills only to witness their words fall on deaf ears.It soon became obvious that we had to get creative.Ok Michigan Legislature… We'll meet you at the Capitol on September 20th and channel our rage and frustration into dance!On September 20th the ACLU of Michigan, in partnership with Planned Parenthood, is taking over Michigan’s Capitol by staging a flashmob and rally on the Capitol lawn. Because our best hope for preventing this dangerous legislation from being signed into law is to keep the movement (literally) moving.So please, watch our instructional video of the “Hands Off Dance” and master the moves we like to call the “Can’t Say It” and the “Pelvic Exam.”Then make plans to join us in Lansing on September 20th with your dancing shoes on and protest signs in hand all for the sake of protecting women’s access to healthcare in Michigan.The dance-off is just the tip of the iceberg. The huge community of people in Michigan who are tired of politicians interfering with a woman’s ability to make personal health decisions, have been very busy this summer, and have been sending their message to Michigan legislators loud and clear.They silence female legislators from speaking out in opposition to the Mega-Bill? We'll make vagina the talk of the summer.They prevent over 90 women from testifying against legislation that will directly affect them? We'll pay you a visit on the Capitol lawn with Eve Ensler and 5,000 of our supporters in tow and grace you with a performance of The Vagina Monologues.They want to play doctor by making medical decisions for Michigan women? We'll solicit your stellar medical advice by finding 1000 ways to ask about menstrual cramp relief in 140 characters or less.We won’t stop standing up (and dancing) in support of women’s health. Please join us.If you can’t make it to the Capitol on Sept 20, send a message to Michigan Governor, copying key politicians. Tell lawmakers not to put politics over women’s health.By Merissa Kovach, Field Organizer and Maggie McGuire, Communications Associate

It looks like some Michigan politicians want to “play doctor” and take away a woman’s ability to make personal, private medical decisions for herself. In June, Michigan vaulted to the top of the list of states with outrageous, regressive legislation on women's health by placing a monster omnibus package of bills (House Bills 5711, 5712 and 5713) on the fast-track to becoming law. The War on Women Mega Bill was passed in the House and if it survives in the Senate, it would effectively make safe abortion services inaccessible in the state. Since several Michigan politicians so clearly "wanna be your doc," let's give them the chance. Use our tweet generator to automatically create a tweet with your most pressing medical questions targeting key Michigan politicians. Once they receive enough questions, perhaps they'll realize that that they are NOT medical professionals, should stop far-reaching anti-abortion measures, including HB 5711, from passing and allow real doctors to provide the best care for their patients. Try it out and share with your friends on Twitter. Don’t forget to use the hashtags #SoYouWannaBe MyDoc and #MIMegaBill to be a part of and follow this conversation. Let’s send our state's extreme politicians a message: it’s never OK to put politics over women’s health, and it’s essential that they keep the state’s women’s health centers open. By Rana Elmir, Communications Director

Apparently, things are getting a little heated out there in Lansing. Despite massive public opposition, the Michigan House of Representatives passed an omnibus abortion bill (which we told you about here) that could shut down clinics that provide safe, legal abortions and end medication abortions throughout the state. Decorum was shattered. Gavels were struck. But not because lawmakers passed an extreme and dangerous law; a law that so clearly threatens the health and lives of all Michigan women. No, because Rep. Lisa Brown – that saucy minx – talked about her hoo-hah. Testifying against the bill, she told the Speaker "I'm flattered you are interested in my vagina, but no means no." Today, she and Rep. Barb Byrum (who reportedly shouted the word “vasectomy” out of turn) have been banned from speaking on the floor of the House. Uh guys, I think you missed the point. Did you think no one would notice when you passed this bill? Did you see what happened in Virginia this year? Allow me to remind you: The Governor of Virginia and the state legislature pushed through an extremely controversial mandatory ultrasound law (and if you think even saying the word “vagina” in the state legislature is bad, you should see the props they pulled out for this one). The people of Virginia did not want their government to do this. The people of Virginia are now pissed off. According to a poll released this spring, voter approval for the Governor and Legislature has plummeted to new lows among both men and women and across party lines. In fact, according to the poll, this is the first time the Virginia Legislature has ever received a “negative grade” from Virginia voters. The poll also revealed that 72 percent of Virginians do not want the government using its resources to interfere with a woman’s personal and private decisions about abortion. I wonder what will happen in Virginia this November. It’s not too late in Michigan, though. You can ensure this bill never becomes law. You can get back to the work you were actually elected to do. I bet no one will talk about vaginas if you do. By Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project

As you may have heard, Mississippi passed a law earlier this year, which was explicitly designed to shut down the only health care center in the entire state where a woman can get a safe, legal abortion. In passing the law, some politicians made quite clear that they knew the closure would jeopardize the health and lives of Mississippi women—and that they didn’t care. Apparently all this notoriety made their compatriots, in Michigan, quite jealous—why should Mississippi get all the attention, they must have asked themselves? So last week, from out of nowhere, politicians in Michigan rushed through not one, but a whole package of bills (take that, Mississippi!) chock full of abortion restrictions that could close women’s health centers across the state and leave women in Michigan without access to safe, comprehensive reproductive health care. The Michigan House of Representatives came close to passing these bills today, but at the last minute, legislators decided to postpone the vote. They are vowing to bring it up for a vote tomorrow or the next day. That gives us a small window to make our voices heard. When will these politicians finally learn? Abortion is a complicated issue, but supporting a woman’s health and well-being should be simple. We should give every woman the opportunity to make the best decision for her circumstances, whether that decision is raising a child, adoption, or abortion. Politicians cannot make that decision for her. Some Michigan lawmakers apparently believe that because they don’t like abortion, no one should be able to have one, no matter her situation. And if shutting down women’s health centers is the way to prohibit a woman from having access to abortion, I guess they think they can get away with that. They are wrong. And that’s just the message that thousands of people have conveyed to Michigan lawmakers in the last week. But the extremists in Michigan haven’t backed down--yet. They are still trying to rush this legislation through the House. We need to step up to beat back this attack. Send your message now. Share this blog on Facebook and Twitter. If these legislators continue to play politics with women’s health, we all lose. By Elissa Berger, ACLU Advocacy and Policy Counsel

The committee room was packed: women in bright pink tees, young aides in black suits, babies and distinguished physicians. Stickers and laptops and video cameras were out and at the ready.This was not the typical show for a 9 a.m. House Committee on Health Policy meeting in Lansing.At issue was the committee’s approval of what many consider to be the worst assault on women’s health in Michigan history. If passed, the three-bill package (HB 5711, HB 5712, and HB 5713), will effectively make abortion inaccessible to women in our state.Not only would these bills burden the already-limited number of abortion providers with new and expensive regulations, they would also significantly intrude on the protected doctor-patient relationship, forcing physicians to conduct scripted inquiries into the personal lives of their patients.Needless to say, the bill provoked quite an outpouring of opposition. I had driven up early from Ann Arbor with a group of semi-retired professionals, all women, all activists. They couldn’t believe that they were still fighting this fight.For me, it was one of my first opportunities to participate in the struggle for choice that so many women before me have faced. I didn’t know exactly what to expect from the hearing, but I felt certain of my own anger.These bills are dangerous—they threaten to not only endanger women’s lives across the state, but also fortify the growing social apparatus designed to manage and control women. The energy of the room was palpable. The hearing began, and almost immediately, it became clear that there would be maneuvering to push the bills through quickly.Testimony began, and after the first few speakers emotions began to rise throughout the room. Clapping and encouragement for some speakers erupted spontaneously and was promptly struck down by the chairwoman’s gavel.The chair's attempts to enforce the appearance of an everyday session was incredibly frustrating. Rarely have I ever felt so powerless. Facing such an immediate threat, how could we be cool and collected?Despite the fact that the bill had only been introduced two days prior and over 50 people were waiting to speak in opposition (including many representative of women’s groups across the state), the meeting was abruptly ended before many had a chance to publically air our concerns.The bills were approved. The committee was quickly adjourned. Those of us in opposition to the bills were left enraged, speechless, or in some cases, in tears. In the video below you can see one woman who had waited to tell her story cry out to the legislators, shouting to be heard. The committee's cold reaction even warranted a post on Rachel Maddow's blog. Emboldened by my frustration, I actually look forward to the weeks ahead. There is no question it will be a fight.With the ACLU of Michigan, its reproductive health allies and all the supporters of women's health on the case, there’s no question in my mind we’ve got as good of chance as any to convince the legislature not to approve these bills. But it’s becoming clear we’ll need all the help we can get.By Arielle Tolman, ACLU of Michigan Intern 

It seems that Michigan politicians are hell-bent on making the cliché “when the country catches a cold, Michigan gets pneumonia” a reality. For proof, look no further than the more than 50 pages that make up a three-bill package: HB 5711, HB 5712, HB 5713. This legislative behemoth is on a fast track in our State House of Representatives, and will make safe abortion services virtually inaccessible to Michigan women. While recently we’ve seen Virginia require abortion providers to follow unnecessary and burdensome regulations, Oklahoma ban safe, evidence-based uses of medications to perform early, non surgical abortions, and Georgia and Arizona ban abortions during a time in pregnancy when a woman might find out something has gone seriously wrong, Michigan politicians are attempting to do all three – and more – with one vote. This sweeping and unprecedented assault on women endangers nearly all aspects of reproductive health care by trying to shut down health centers that provide abortion services. Doctors have come out against this legislation in droves because they know that medicine, not politics, should dictate how they treat their patients. Denying women access to basic health care is not only offensive and wrong, it is out of touch. This year, people in Michigan and all over the country, have made it clear that we don’t want politicians restricting access to woman’s health care. But politicians in Michigan haven’t gotten the message. They seem more determined than ever to interfere with private medical decisions. Let the governor know: we cannot let these extremists succeed. By Kary Moss, Executive Director