Governor Gretchen Whitmer said she will be closely watching Tuesday as the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on whether FDA approval of the abortion pill mifepristone should be withdrawn.
The Democratic governor said Monday that she is concerned a decision from the court in coming months could supersede Michigan’s reproductive rights protections, including a voter-approved 2022 amendment to the state constitution.
“The people of Michigan turned out in droves to say, hell yes, we expect to have these rights,” she said. “All of this could be undermined by a bad decision by SCOTUS on mifepristone. Medical abortion is the way that most people access abortion.”
Whitmer ran for reelection in 2022 as a champion of abortion rights and the reproductive rights amendment following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which held the U.S. Constitution does not protect abortion rights.
Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan's chief medical executive, appointed by Whitmer, said access to other reproductive services, such as in vitro fertilization, cannot be separated from availability of mifepristone and other abortion care.
“That means you have to protect women who are experiencing non-viable pregnancies who need to terminate for another reason, because of another diagnosis or another issue that’s come up, and it needs having to protect medications like mifepristone,” she said.
Whitmer is expected to sign legislation soon to repeal Michigan’s longtime ban on surrogate pregnancy.