Proposal 3 stirs signs of protest

Rebecca Pierce, The Record-Eagle, Traverse City, Mich.
Updated ·2 min read

Oct. 3—People gathered Sunday afternoon along a 3-mile stretch of East Front Street onto Grandview Parkway to demonstrate their opposition to Proposal 3.

"What we are here for is standing with women, and really life at conception, to defend life," said the Rev. Christopher Jarvis of Christ the King Catholic Church in Williamsburg. "Abortion hurts the woman and the baby.

"We're here to support the life movement — and to support women and the beautiful gift they have to make life."

Michigan voters will decide the future of legal access to abortion in the state when they consider Proposal 3 on the Nov. 8 general election ballot.

And that proposal was galvanizing the demonstration Sunday.

The measure, which has been hailed by supporters as the most effective way to keep abortion legal in Michigan, received 753,000 signatures to get on the ballot — more than any other proposal in state history.

A "yes" vote would add a broad new right to "reproductive freedom" in the Michigan Constitution and invalidate a statewide 1931 abortion ban.

A "no" vote would leave abortion access up to elected officials in Lansing or judges, who have thus far suspended enforcement of the state's 91-year-old abortion ban under rulings that abortion opponents are appealing to higher courts.

The impact of some parts of Proposal 3 — on parental consent laws, late-term abortions and medical professionals who perform abortions — are vague, opponents to the proposal and some attorneys say.

A Bureau of Elections summary of the measure states the proposal would "invalidate all state laws that conflict with this amendment."

Opponents say the measure is an "anything goes" proposal that would eradicate all existing restrictions on abortion in the state; supporters say the measure "simply restores the rights that were lost under Roe v. Wade."

On Sunday, Jarvis said people need to realize that the impact of Proposal 3 would be "much more radical" than they realize.

The priest was clad in his black cassock and held a rosary and a gold-framed photo the Shroud of Turin. Some of his parishioners were standing with him at the intersection of Garfield Avenue and East Front Street.

Other priests and nuns participated in the demonstration that appeared to involve several hundred people and stretched for many blocks to the west along both sides of the five-lane state highway leading into downtown Traverse City.

People were standing, others were seated, holding signs saying, "Abortion hurts women," "Abortion kills children," "Life, the first inalienable right," and "Pray to end abortion."

Some drivers honked their horns as they passed them, others waved and smiled.

Oct. 2 was the date for Right to Life's annual LIFE CHAIN event, and some of the people participating in the demonstration held LIFE CHAIN signs.

Bridge Michigan contributed to this report.

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