GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Saturday, June 24 will mark one year since Roe v. Wade was overturned, which protected abortion access federally for 50 years.
“To have that ripped out from under us and under our patients and providers has been just heartbreaking,” said Ashlea Phenicie, vice president of communications for Planned Parenthood of Michigan. “We talk to patients all the time, but especially immediately after the Roe decision, who were terrified that they were going to lose access.”
When the supreme court decision was announced, which stemmed from a decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, it gave states the power to determine abortion care and access.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, 13 states have implemented total or near total abortion bans, and a handful of others have enacted restrictions like a six-week, 15-week, or 18-week abortion ban.
Phenicie said that subsequently led to women seeking abortion care in other states.
“When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, it launched the U.S. into an abortion access crisis,” she said during a Zoom interview on Thursday. “Recent research from #WeCount shows that nearly 70,000 people in the first nine months after that decision were forced to leave their state to access abortion care.”
Phenicie said that Michigan saw “firsthand” the affects of the Roe decision, especially after Proposal 3 passed in the November 2022 election. The passing of Prop 3, also called Reproductive Freedom For All, codified abortion rights in the state's constitution.
She said Planned Parenthood of Michigan has seen patients come from as far away as Texas and Oklahoma to receive care.
“The number of out-of-state patients traveling to Planned Parenthood of Michigan for care has tripled since the Roe decision,” Phenicie said. “So, that is devastating. These folks are often are later in their pregnancies because their care has been delayed. They’ve had to make arrangements to travel.”
One of the states they’ve also seen patients travel in from his neighboring Ohio, she said.
Jaime Miracle of Pro-Choice Ohio said as soon as the Dobbs decision was ruled and their six-week ban went into effect, Ohioans traveled immediately across the border.
“That happened within hours of the Dobbs decision coming down. So, that very day patients started getting turned away from our clinics and that very day abortion funds and other people were helping people get across state lines,” Miracle recalled during a Zoom interview on Friday. “I was talking to clinic managers in Michigan trying to figure out what we could do to expand access and all of those things.”
Miracle is the deputy director of Pro-Choice Ohio. She said in October 2022, due to an injunction, abortions were re-allowed. However, abortion supporters look to Michigan, and the passing of the ballot initiative, Prop 3, as a bar they’d like to achieve in their own state.
“It’s refreshing to look across the border and as somebody from Columbus who, you know, football rivalries be what they are, praising Michigan doesn’t come easy,” Miracle said. “But really looking at the lead that Michigan has set.”
FOX 17 reached out to Right to Life. They said in a statement, specifically from Barbara Listing, president of Right To Life Michigan:
"Saturday, June 24th, marks the one-year anniversary since the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization was handed down, overturning Roe v. Wade.
"The one-year anniversary of Dobbs is a celebratory time for the cause of life nationwide. The Dobbs decision reaffirms our national commitment to women and children - their health and their futures - and a broader life ethic that characterizes the best of humanity. Dobbs is not an end in itself but the reigniting of a cultural conversation about how we as a society value and support each and every woman through the most challenging of times, inviting her to make a choice for life. Since Dobbs, tens of thousands of lives have been saved, and countless women are not left to wonder what could have been."
"While Proposal 3 ushered in unregulated abortion at any time, today, we invite women to make a courageous, hope-filled choice for life. No woman should feel that she is alone. Thousands of Michiganders serve in 100 pregnancy resource centers in communities across the state. These centers provide ongoing support, free medical care, housing and transportation assistance, and supplies for women at each stage of pregnancy and after birth," Listing added.
Right to Life of Michigan will continue to support women and girls by standing up for parental consent protections, informed consent requirements, and health and safety standards for abortion facilities.
Phenicie said that all are welcomed no matter where they’re from. However, the fight for complete abortion care is far from over.
“The threats are still ongoing. We could, in the years ahead, see a national abortion ban as anti-abortion politicians take control of Congress and the presidency,” Phenicie said. “We are also seeing lawsuits filed in anti-abortion states that could impact the entire nation, most recently with the attacks on medication abortion.”
