Every voter should be aware of where candidates stand on critical issues, and no issue is more critical than our right to life. Where does Governor Gretchen Whitmer stand?
Gretchen Whitmer’s Political Career
- Michigan House (2001-March 2006)
- Michigan Senate (March 2006-2014)
- Governor (2019-current)
Unlimited Abortion
Supports an unlimited right to abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. She promoted a Reproductive Health Act for Michigan in 2019 that would:
- Allow minor teens to have abortions without their parents’ consent or knowledge.
- Exempt abortion facilities from health and safety regulations that medical clinics follow.
- Allow abortion facilities to refuse to provide informed consent to women.
- Allow walk-in abortions with no waiting period.
Voted multiple times against partial-birth abortion bans (2004, 2008, 2011).
Opposed an effort to prevent women from being coerced into abortion by voting against the Prolife Omnibus Act of 2012.
The Abortion Industry
Allowed abortion facilities to remain open under special rules during the early part of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020; other outpatient medical facilities were closed and life-saving procedures and screenings were denied. Governor Whitmer defended her action by stating that abortion is “life-sustaining.”
Voted against Michigan’s Ultrasound Viewing Option in 2006. The law requires abortion facilities to offer women a chance to view their ultrasound before an abortion.
Voted against requiring abortion facilities to follow the health and safety standards of other outpatient surgical facilities in Michigan through the Prolife Omnibus Act of 2012.
Voted against a 2002 law to stop abortion facilities from collecting payment before the 24-hour waiting period for abortions—abortion facilities used up-front payments to coerce women to follow through with their abortions.
Conscience Rights
Opposed Michigan’s Abortion Insurance Opt-Out in 2013. The law prevents people from being forced to fund abortions through health insurance. During the debate on the law, opponents claimed that women experiencing miscarriages wouldn’t receive treatment if the law passed—that didn’t happen.
Supports tax-funded abortions. Governor Whitmer has been consistently endorsed by Planned Parenthood, which requires endorsees to support every effort to provide free abortions and directly fund the abortions
they provide.
Opposing Pregnancy and Adoption Help
Vetoed funding in the 2020 state budget for the long-running Real Alternatives program that benefited the work of pregnancy help centers, and a program to create college offices to help pregnant and parenting students to find help resources.
Vetoed $16 million for pregnancy help programs in the 2022 state budget, including an adoption awareness campaign.
Vetoed $21 million for pregnancy help programs in the 2023 state budget, including housing assistance for pregnant women.
Fetal Tissue Trafficking
Co-chair of the 2008 campaign to amend the Michigan Constitution to allow killing human embryos for research. Her campaign, Cure Michigan, promised the amendment would lead to cures for a variety of deadly and debilitating diseases, benefit the economy with more than $100 million, and create a biotechnology revolution in the state—none of those things happened.
Protecting the Elderly
Created a policy placing patients sick with the coronavirus in nursing homes full of elderly patients—who were most at risk from dying from the coronavirus.