Lauren C. Moye, FISM News
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Michigan and South Carolina are making headlines in the ongoing state-level battle to protect the sanctity of preborn life, as pro-life and pro-abortion activists, politicians, and voters square off at the ballot box and in state legislatures.
Michigan: Abortion rights amendment will be on the Nov. ballot
Michigan Supreme Court justices ordered for the state Board of State Canvassers to certify a ballot measure that will potentially enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution.
While the petition gained over 730,000 signatures, well over the requirement to be placed on the ballot, the board did not certify the measure in a split 2-2 vote among party lines.
The Republican members objected on technical grounds that the words were printed too close together to allow for a genuine understanding of the “full text” of the proposed amendment.
“In this case, the meaning of the words has not changed by the alleged insufficient spacing between them,” the majority opinion reads. The Board was then ordered to certify the ballot for the Nov. 8 election.
Michigan keeps strict requirements for its petition forms, including that text appear in size 8 font. On this occasion, the proposed amendment proved too lengthy and displayed without visible spaces between words.
However, the defendants did not present evidence to prove the spacing had impacted any signatory’s ability to understand the text. The justices elected not to hear oral arguments.
Justices David Viviano and Brian Zahra disagreed with the decision, noting that there was a precedence of strict compliance to form requirements, including rejecting previous ballots for typographical errors and “full text” concerns.
“The ‘full text’ requirement functions to ensure that readers of the petition do not have to overcome obstacles to interpret it or guess at what the amendment might be once it becomes law,” Viviano wrote in his dissenting opinion, which also noted that a digital coding for a space is irrelevant if the file prints without visible spaces.
Both Zahra and Viviano were originally appointed by former Republican Governor Rick Snyder.
South Carolina: Republicans block near-total abortion ban, pass amended pro-life bill
Republican State Senators in South Carolina blocked the passage of a near-total abortion ban yesterday. After some debate, senators passed an amended version of H.B. 5399.
GOP State Senator Tom Davis led a filibuster against the near-total abortion ban found in “The South Carolina Human Protection Act,” claiming he would keep speaking until either 26 chamber votes shut him down or bill proponents agreed to include key amendments.
In this filibuster, Davis criticized his party for hypocrisy in claiming to want to balance a right to life with women’s rights, but then “push for a law that completely ignores a woman’s right to autonomy from the moment the egg is fertilized.”
Davis was joined by fellow Republicans Josh Kimbrell, Katrina Shealy, Sandy Senn, and Penry Gustafson in calling for abortion exceptions to be allowed in the case of rape and incest.
After a recess, the senate came back to pass an amended version that would prohibit abortions after six weeks but allows for abortion during the entire first trimester if the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest.
Of the three female Republican senators, Shealy has been the most outspoken against the bill.
“You want to believe that God is wanting you to push a bill through with no exceptions that kill mothers and ruins the lives of children — lets mothers bring home babies to bury them — then I think you’re miscommunicating with God. Or maybe you aren’t communicating with Him at all,” she told PBS on Thursday.
However, from its original text, the bill specifies that abortions performed to “prevent the death” or “substantial potential death” of a pregnant woman are not violations of the proposed law. That exception has never been stripped or debated. Additionally, the Human Protection Act has always included an exception for fatal fetal anomalies.
The bill will now go back to the state House for another round of votes.
The new form is similar to the original bill draft, which included the amended exceptions. The Senate Medical Affairs Committee, led by Senator Richard Cash, stripped these before the bill was presented to the whole legislative body.
The Human Protection Act is similar to the existing restrictive abortion law in South Carolina, which is currently held up in the state’s Supreme Court.
The vote highlights how restrictions on abortions have created a sense of division within the Republican party, with a variation of opinions on when abortion should become illegal.
Babylon Bee CEO, Seth Dillon went on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast last month and explained why so many pro-life advocates don’t believe that there should be any exceptions for abortions other than when a mother’s life is in danger, saying that if life is valuable regardless of its function, then abortion should be banned from the moment of conception.
Thank you @SethDillon for standing for the human right to life—without exception—on @joerogan's show today.@joerogan, let’s talk. I think we would find a lot of common ground on protecting families, fighting censorship, and pursuing a meaningful life. pic.twitter.com/StlfgNxARo
— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) August 16, 2022