to criminalize abortion, from South Dakota to Colorado to Mississippi, reveal possible electoral peril for Republicans.
“Patients flew, they hitchhiked, they took a bus – they did whatever they had to do to get there,” said Chelian. “And they came from, what I can recall, a six-state area and Canada.”was on the fall ballot, asking voters whether to legalize abortion up to 20 weeks gestation. The question polled so well that a new abortion clinic was founded in Detroit, anticipating new patients.
However, a vocal anti-abortion campaign funded by the Catholic church ran wall-to-wall commercials, commented in newspaper articles and sent Catholic high school students out to canvass against the measure – and it failed, terribly. Voters rejected the measure 61% to 39%, and abortion remained illegal in Michigan.
Roe followed just a few months later in January 1973, and seemingly made the history of the first referendum moot. But Chelian, who had an illegal abortion herself at 15, is now worried history may repeat. A supreme court decision is expected in June, meaning abortion could be illegal in Michigan for several months before voters get their chance in November to vote on the ballot initiative.