The stories of nine Michiganders show how they are poised to decide the fate of abortion rights in the state. Many of them say their relationship to political activism has been changed forever by this high-stakes election cycle.
had never been involved in political activism. A Flint, Mich., native, Maxwell has been practicing medicine for 34 years, and while she’s regularly voted, her long hours and intense work left her little time or energy for volunteering. She had long told herself that simply providing medical care, including abortions, was enough of a contribution.hit her hard — to the point where she felt physically sick to her stomach — and she began to think about what she could do outside the exam room.
Since then, she’s been urging anyone she encounters to vote in favor of the initiative — lobbying the nurses she works with while waiting for a baby to be delivered, preaching to friends at a recent birthday party, and cornering salespeople at the local mall. “I don’t see a place for politics to be in the exam room,” she said.Recent college graduategrew up in Mt. Pleasant, Mich., steeped in the anti-abortion teachings of her Catholic family and community.
Now, Jones has a new view on politics. “I’ve gotten so much more interested in how things get on the ballot in the first place, and how citizens can be a part of that — not just candidates,” she said.Like thousands of others around the country,69, experienced a political awakening at the 2017 Women’s March, when she took to the streets out of concern President Donald Trump would roll back abortion access nationwide.
Following the 2017 Women’s March, she continued attending rallies here and there. But it wasn’t until years later, after the Supreme Court majority Trump installed did just as she feared, that she thought of herself as actually being able to influence the outcome of an election. “I’ve always been a voter. But I realized I needed to do more than just vote,” Buckner said. “We had to take this into our own hands because our politicians don’t always have our best interests in mind.”graduated from college in 2020, the 24-year-old decided to stay in Michigan and throw herself into anti-abortion protests, even though she didn’t identify with the political leanings of most people working to outlaw the procedure.
When the fight began over Michigan’s ballot initiative earlier this year, Smith, who always thought herself better at agitating and organizing activists, didn’t feel comfortable or interested in engaging in electoral work. Two days later, Carpenter changed her registration and participated in the Democratic primary. She also started writing letters to every elected official she could think of, from her state lawmakers and governor to Biden and each member of the U.S. Supreme Court. Only one person responded out of the dozens she contacted — Whitmer, who invited her to participate in an October listening session on abortion rights.
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