Whitmer’s push for abortion rights continues as she repeals insurance requirement in Michigan

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Monday signed the final piece of the state’s Reproductive Health Act into law, which repealed a requirement for a separate insurance rider for abortion coverage.

The move comes after voters enshrined abortion rights to the battleground state’s constitution in last year’s midterm elections, and ahead of 2024, when Democrats will continue to highlight the issue.

Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade last year, abortion rights has become a driving force to the ballot box. Democratic candidates, including Whitmer during her 2022 reelection campaign, have made the issue a central part of their pitch. And voters, in turn, have consistently chosen to protect abortion rights and picked candidates who support those rights.

“Today, 10 years after I gave a speech on the Senate floor and shared my own story as a survivor of sexual assault, I am honored as governor to repeal the ban on insurance coverage for abortion,” Whitmer posted on X after signing the bill.

“The moral of the story is, never stop fighting for what you know is right,” she said in the post.

Per the state, of the more than 27,000 abortion that took place in Michigan last year, only 2.5% were paid for by insurance. The vast majority were self-paid.

The controversial insurance rider requirement was approved in 2013 by the then-Republican-led legislature.

Whitmer, then the state Senate minority leader, spoke against it at the time and revealed her own personal story.

“The Republican male majority continues to ignorantly and unnecessarily weigh in on important women’s health issues that they know nothing about,” she said, according to MLive.com.

Whitmer has long been a vocal supporter of abortion rights. Six months after she won reelection and Democrats took control of the state legislature, the governor signed legislation repealing a 1931 abortion ban in Michigan – one that she had challenged even ahead of the overturning of Roe.

In August, Whitmer said many “bad laws” were still in place which “put politically motivated, medically unnecessary restrictions on abortion.”

A new CNN poll released this week found that in a hypothetical rematch, former President Donald Trump had 50% support of registered voters in Michigan while President Joe Biden had 40%. Biden had flipped the state in 2020 after it voted for Trump four years earlier.

Biden, like his fellow Democrats, plans to highlight abortion rights as he seeks reelection in 2024. His campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, told CNN earlier this year that the president will continue to focus on “efforts that are helping motivate and mobilize voters right now” – like abortion access – as he looks toward reelection.

CNN’s Melissa Alonso contributed to this report.

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