Sun. Nov 24th, 2024

Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally on Saginaw Valley State University campus in Michigan on Oct. 3, 2024 ahead of the presidential election | Photo: Anna Liz Nichols

Abortion is on the ballot, Planned Parenthood Action Fund President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson told the Michigan Advance in an interview this week. But she added that just about every freedom Americans hold is on the line.

And people are connecting the dots on former President Donald Trump’s current plans for freedom, Johnson said, as he has adopted a states’ rights approach, similar to arguments from slave-owning Confederate states during the Civil War, so that each state makes their own policies on abortion.

“It’s a patchwork for freedom … bringing [us] to before the Confederacy,” Johnson said. “How can that be your blueprint for freedom?”

Trump has said everybody wanted Roe v. Wade to be overturned in 2022, he takes pride in being the person who appointed three of the U.S. Supreme Court justices who did so. Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democratic leaders have decried the decision as unjust, and assert that Trump’s true plan is to institute a national abortion ban.

Alexis McGill Johnson, the president of Planned Parenthood, talks to a crowd during a campaign event for U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) in Grand Rapids on June 20, 2024. | Lucy Valeski

Although Trump declined in his only debate with Harris to say he would veto a national abortion ban, he later said in October that he would.

Johnson was in Michigan over the weekend campaigning with two Democrats in tight races: U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly), who’s running for U.S. Senate against former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-White Lake), and state Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City), who’s facing former Trump immigration official Paul Junge in the 8th Congressional District. 

It starts with stripping away health care rights for women, Planned Parenthood Action Fund of Michigan President Paula Thornton Greear told the Michigan Advance this week. But Trump’s efforts to strip away autonomy from all Michiganders are clear as Trump has advocated for shutting down the U.S. Department of Education, which currently mandates funding for things like schooling for students from low-income families and students with disabilities.

“Let’s not fool ourselves here, right? This is not solely about abortion. This is not solely about reproductive and sexual health care. This is about education. This is about the economy,” Greear said. “They are really trying to push Michiganders and people across the country back to … before Jim Crow.”

Trump has maxxed out his support in Michigan, effectively getting the same percentage of votes in Michigan in 2020 as he did in 2016, with fewer people voting third party in 2020, Johnson contended.

However, many Arab-American leaders in Michigan have endorsed Trump or Green Party nominee Jill Stein over Vice President Kamala Harris, citing President Joe Biden’s support for Israel in the war in Gaza that has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-controlled health agency. The “uncommitted” movement has not endorsed any candidate for president.

Paula Thornton Greear, president of Planned Parenthood of Michigan , talks about voting intersectionally during an LGBTQ+ rights roundtable in the Grand Rapids Pride Center on June 21, 2024. | Lucy Valeski

Johnson said she is worried for the future of freedoms in the U.S. Utilizing political leverage is an important part of democracy, and that’s how the system should work, she said, but those in the uncommitted movement will not be able to appeal to Trump for a ceasefire in Gaza.

“We are literally fighting for our very democracy. So the very ability of a movement like the uncommitted movement to exist depends on a proper functioning democracy,” Johnson said. “Our ability to be able to cast our vote in private, our ability not to have somebody in there with us monitoring us, that’s also on the line.”

Democrats are banking on women voting for Harris on the platform of abortion rights and reproductive health care, so much so that there are ads reminding married women that their vote is private and their husbands will never know if they voted for Harris. Actress Julia Roberts narrates one such ad.

“Someone came to me at one of the rallies and she told me a story about her abortion. … She was a teen, pregnant as a teenager with her high school sweetheart that she’s still married to. … She said, ‘This is the first time I’m actually not voting with my husband.’ … I think about her often,” Johnson said. “I think, more than ever, what we are seeing, particularly given the last two years, [is] more people saying, ‘I’m going to make a decision for myself in this moment.’ And just like we don’t want politicians in the exam room, no one else is in that voting booth with you.” 

Michigan has been a beacon of hope for reproductive freedom as Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and abortion rights groups fought to maintain abortion access in 2022 until voters could approve a constitutional amendment enshrining the right to an abortion into the state constitution, Greear said. Other states that have rolled back abortion rights have sought care in Michigan, tripling Planned Parenthood’s out-of-state patient caseload.

Infringements on reproductive freedoms are harbingers of intent of future infringements on other freedoms, and Michiganders are voting accordingly, Greear said. There is hope that Harris will win and Trump won’t have the opportunity to impose a national abortion ban. But Greear said hope is not a strategy; voting is.

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