Civil Rights
House passes DHHS budget bill with abortion restrictions
The GOP-led House passed a proposed budget for Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Wednesday that includes a number of restrictions to abortion access and prohibits state funding for abortion care. Senate Bill 828, introduced by state Sen. Rick Outman (R-Six Lakes), would prohibit funding to organizations, and any of their subcontracts, that […]
U.S. House Judiciary Committee debates abortion in advance of landmark court ruling
WASHINGTON — The national debate over abortion rights raged in the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, as Democrats warned of the dangers of a potential end to the constitutional right and Republicans argued that legislatures should determine abortion laws. The hearing came just weeks after a leaked draft opinion from Associate Justice Samuel Alito […]
Indigenous Siberians, barred from fighting fossil fuels back home, join Line 5 fight
In the United States and Canada, Native citizens can point to long-held treaty rights as attempted recourse against encroaching fossil fuel projects. Such is the case with the Great Lakes tribes that oppose Canadian company Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline in Michigan and Line 3 in Minnesota. However, there is no such recourse available for Indigenous […]
House committee approves bill to close marital rape legal loophole
A bill that would close a loophole in the state’s marital rape ban made it through the Michigan House Judiciary committee Tuesday with unanimous support. The Michigan Penal Code currently allows marital rape when the perpetrator’s spouse is mentally incapacitated, which includes instances where a spouse has been drugged or coerced and is unable to […]
Poor People’s Campaign rallies for social and economic justice on Capitol steps
A small group gathered outside the state Capitol on a rainy Wednesday afternoon for the Michigan Poor People’s Campaign “Moral Witness Wednesday” rally to demand that the state’s elected officials support basic human needs from minimum wage increases to reproductive freedom to prison reform. “Whether you are working on foreclosures, whether you are working on […]
Report says hundreds of state legislators have joined far-right Facebook groups
Updated, 7:49 a.m., 5/19/22 More than one in five Republican state lawmakers across the country have joined at least one far-right Facebook group, according to a new report. Together the lawmakers sponsored 963 bills during the most recent legislative sessions, said the group that wrote the report, which describes the far-right efforts as anti-human rights. […]
Biden condemns racist theory of white supremacy in visit to Buffalo after mass shooting
President Joe Biden on Tuesday commemorated the victims of last weekend’s mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, and condemned the ideology that drove the killer to “carry out a murderous, racist rampage” at a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood. In a visit to the Upstate New York city, Biden and other New York […]
Carone, Rocha and Alexander among candidates disqualified from running in 2022
Mellissa Carone was disqualified on Tuesday from running in a Republican primary for the Michigan Senate by the Michigan Department of State. Carone, who gained national attention as the star witness in Rudy Giuliani’s mock trial on baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election former President Donald Trump lost before the House Oversight […]
Michigan judge grants injunction against 1931 abortion ban if Roe is overturned
Updated, 3:50 p.m., 5/17/22, with comments from Planned Parenthood A Court of Claims judge granted a preliminary injunction in a suit brought by Planned Parenthood against Michigan’s 1931 abortion ban law. Court of Claims Judge Elizabeth Gleicher ordered the injunction Tuesday, writing that “forced pregnancy … contravenes the right to make autonomous medical decisions.” Planned […]
Benson calls on Legislature to make threats against election officials a felony
Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson called on lawmakers Tuesday to make it a felony to make threats against election officials and their families. Benson asked the GOP-led Legislature to work with her on specifics of legislation that would make it a felony to attack, harass or dox election workers and their families, including when […]
Susan J. Demas: The anti-abortion movement’s extremism can no longer be whitewashed
After years of seeing gauzy anti-abortion ads cajoling women of color not to “kill” their Black and Brown babies, last week may have been a bit of a jolt. Amid a baby formula shortage (thanks to a heavily monopolized industry), Republicans quickly adopted the talking point that the Biden administration should withhold formula from migrant […]
On this day in 1972: Segregationist George Wallace wins Mich. Democratic presidential primary
Former Alabama Gov. George Wallace — who once declared, “I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” — won the Michigan Democratic Presidential Primary on May 16, 1972, with ease. He outpaced former Vice President Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, U.S. Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota and U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm of New York City, […]