When you don’t have the support of the voters of Michigan, you have to go around them. Or OVER them. Graphic by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog. Last May, I wrote about how the forced-birth group Right to Life of Michigan, furious that Governor Snyder had vetoed the “Plan Ahead for Your Abortion” legislation send to him by the […]

Decline to sign

It’s not often that less than 3% of a state’s citizens get to create new law without having to let the voters decide or the governor to sign it into law but that is exactly what’s about to happen in Michigan. Yesterday, the State Board of Canvasser approved petition language submitted by Right to Life of Michigan that would force women to purchase a separate rider on their insurance to cover abortion. Not just government-subsidized or government provided health insurance. ALL health insurance. I’m calling it the “Plan Ahead for Your Abortion” law. If Right to Life can get only 258,088 in 6 months, the measure goes to the legislature which has 40 days to approve it. If they do, and they will, it becomes law. The rest of Michigan voters will have no say in it and it won’t require Governor Snyder’s signature.

It’s clever, for sure. Right to Life Michigan KNOWS they are on the wrong side of this issue from the majority of Michigan residents and from Governor Snyder himself so they have to bypass the normal process and exploit a loophole made possible by a legislature full of conservative extremists put in place by decades of Republican gerrymandering.

More, including video, awaits you after the jump.

Let’s you and him fight…

Tea partiers in western Michigan are taking on a strange adversary this month. In a widely-blogged screed from the Tea Party of West Michigan (“Influence policy, effect [sic] elections, protect the Constitution”), Tina DuPont is outraged the Right to Life of Michigan is supposedly supporting the formation of a state-run health insurance exchange mandated by the Affordable Care Act.

Details after the jump.

Government small enough to fit inside your uterus On the heels of their wildly successful year of “small government” where they created no fewer than 323 new laws, Michigan Republicans turned their attention to making abortion services as difficult as possible for Michigan women to obtain. Last year, they passed a bill making illegal abortions illegal(er). From a Detroit News […]

Popcorn time once again as far-right Tim Walberg and farther-right Brian Rooney battle it out for who wants to deny women their legal right to choose to have an abortion most. Yesterday, Walberg sent out an email that said this: Voters Never Have to Question Where I Stand Voters never have to question where I stand, my principles or priorities. […]