What Michigan's Proposal 3 Means for Abortion Rights: A bipartisan coalition of pro-choice Midwesterners won big on Election Day.

• Author: Wadzeckkraus, Molly

Ingham County resident Raina Korbakis described feeling "thrilled and relieved" upon learning that Michigan voters had approved Proposal 3 in November's midterm elections.

The Reproductive Freedom for All ballot initiative, which passed 57 percent to 43 percent, explicitly establishes the right to abortion, contraception, and other forms of reproductive health care in the state's constitution. With this victory, Michigan became the first state to overturn an existing anti-abortion state law since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

After successes for abortion rights in Kansas this past summer, and the defeat of anti-abortion initiative Amendment 2 in Kentucky, the win in Michigan provides the momentum needed for advocates elsewhere to demonstrate a strong conviction about the role that ballot initiatives can play, especially in Republican-controlled states.

In the Midwest, where GOP control has expanded in recent decades, Michigan stands as an encouraging example for how gerrymandered districts and disenfranchised voters can organize to reclaim their stolen rights. It is clear this battle is not only about Michigan, but it is one piece of a growing, diverse coalition fighting back against extreme rightwing legislatures determined to push through as many anti-choice bills as possible in the lead-up to a possible federal ban.

"This is really important for the country, not just Michigan," Korbakis says. "I hope other states look to us in coming up with a plan. We expect [to] see people coming here for care, and we need to ensure that they, too, have easy access to abortion; and hopefully, we can provide funding."

Michigan is bordered by Indiana and Ohio, two aggressively abortion-hostile states. And while Democrats retained the governorship in Wisconsin, Republicans still picked up seats in both chambers of the state legislature, strengthening their existing control, although failing to gain the supermajorities they had hoped for to overcome vetoes by the governor. Wisconsin's 1849 anti-abortion law remains on the books.

Korbakis, who says she was not generally politically active before the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision in June 2022, first got involved with Proposal 3 by collecting signatures. "This issue changed everything," she says. "I felt like I couldn't sit on the sidelines anymore after what happened with Roe, after watching our rights being stripped away from us." Eventually, Korbakis...