A campaign is organizing to block the new law that will require people to buy a separate insurance policy for abortion coverage. Wednesday the state Legislature approved the law, which began as a Right to Life of Michigan petition initiative. Voter-initiated laws do not need the governor’s signature and it will take effect next year.
Abortion rights advocates are putting together a coalition to launch a new petition drive. This one would challenge the new law with a referendum on the November 2014 ballot.
“We feel we have a lot of momentum with those voters and with the other groups that just feel they’ve been bludgeoned by this legislature and its overreach,” says Shelli Weisberg, with the American Civil Liberties Union.
A referendum campaign would have until late March to gather more than 161,000 signatures of registered voters. If it succeeds, the law would be suspended until after the election 11 months from now.
Republican state Senator Mark Jansen voted for the law. He says he believes the law would survive a statewide vote.
“If it’s a referendum, we’d have to go through the whole political debate of ‘Do you agree or not agree?’ And I think, ultimately, the state of Michigan would say, they’re going to agree with what we’ve just done.”
