Students and state lawmakers talk reproductive rights and mobilizing college-age voters

BY KYLE DAVIDSON, MICHIGAN ADVANCE

MICHIGAN—Michigan college students and a recent grad on Monday joined state Sen. Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing) and state Rep. Julie Brixie (D-Meridian Twp.) to discuss reproductive rights and how to energize young voters.

At the East Lansing event, the lawmakers emphasized the stakes for reproductive freedom across the country this election, with Anthony pointing to Trump’s recent announcement that he would vote to uphold Florida’s ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, although the former president has criticized the law, saying six weeks offered too little time.

In 2022, Michiganders voted to enshrine the right to abortion in Michigan’s constitution through Proposal 3, though Brixie warned these protections would be jeopardized by a national abortion ban.

“Even though we successfully codified our Reproductive Health Care Act here in Michigan last year, it’s still all at risk, because we could be subjected to federal law changes that would make abortion illegal, and the right to a safe, legal abortion is something that everyone should have,” Brixie said. “And I don’t care what the reason is, because it’s none of my damn business why anybody wants to have an abortion.”

While Trump has flip-flopped several times on abortion, Vice President Kamala Harris has consistently advocated for reproductive rights, Brixie said.

Additionally, both lawmakers questioned Trump’s support for in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments, with the former president saying last week in Potterville that his administration would make the procedure free if he is elected to a second term.

“My mom is from Missouri, which is the ‘Show Me’ state. So you can say one thing, but then show me what you actually are doing,” Anthony said. “And what he is doing is empowering an extreme Supreme Court and endorsing extreme Republicans that are going to continue to try to nip away at our rights, even here in the state of Michigan, in which voters have made it clear that our reproductive health care is not up for discussion.”

In 2016, Trump vowed to appoint the number of Supreme Court justices needed to overturn Roe v. Wade. He has repeatedly celebrated the court’s 6-3 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which eliminated federal Constitutional protections for abortion in 2022.

Democrats have also criticized Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) for voting against their efforts to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade, establish federal rights to access contraception and protect IVF.

Brixie and Anthony also stressed the importance of getting students out to vote, asking the students about their concerns and what they’re hearing from their peers about the upcoming election.

While many of the students in attendance said they’d seen a lot of enthusiasm from their classmates, Ruby Muehlenz, a freshman at Michigan State University’s James Madison College for public affairs and international relations, pointed to students who feel are put off by the polarization of the election, or who do not feel their vote matters.

“One of the biggest things that we can do is genuinely just go have conversations with our friends. Being in James Madison, obviously we’re in a room full of people, and a community full of people who are interested in this subject, but getting out in campus, talking to all the engineering and law people and stuff like that, kind of making sure that we have those conversations like this is how politics is in our lives in ways that you don’t understand, and this is how it’s affecting your personal life,” Muehlenz said. 

Julia Walters, an MSU law student, said people should continue having conversations with their family and peers to raise awareness of the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 — a list of far right policy proposals intended for a conservative presidential administration.

While Trump has repeatedly sought to distance himself from the project and its proposals, a review from CNN found 140 former members of the Trump administration, including six former cabinet members, had contributed to the project’s more than 900-page list of policy proposals.

Both Trump and Vance have connections to Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, with Trump and Roberts traveling together on a private plane in 2022 to an event where Trump praised the foundation’s work and policies. Vance penned an introduction for Roberts’ upcoming book, “Dawn’s Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America.”

The foundation’s more-than 900 page “Mandate for Leadership” calls on the Food and Drug Administration to revoke its approval for the medication abortion drug mifepristone and encourages the Department of Justice to enforce the 1873 Comstock Act to prohibit mailing abortion medication and further restricting access.

According to reporting from The 19th, it also includes proposals to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funding and to remove emergency contraception from the contraception mandate under the Affordable Care Act, meaning private providers would no longer be required to cover it.

“Although in Michigan, we might feel safe right now because of all the work that was done to enshrine abortion rights into our Constitution, the reality is there are federal laws that exist, currently on the books, like the Comstock Act that can institute a national abortion ban, and there are other things, other levers, that a potential Trump presidency could pull in order to make our reproductive freedoms limited or nonexistent,” Walters said.

READ MORE: VP Kamala Harris says Trump and Project 2025 threaten Michiganders’ rights

This coverage was republished from Michigan Advance pursuant to a Creative Commons license.