LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – According to Michigan’s Dept. of Health and Human Services’ (MDHHS) vital statistic records, in 2021, Michigan residents received 94.5% of the induced abortions that occurred in Michigan out of the total of 30,074. That means 1665 (5.5%) abortions were done for out-of-state residents. The MDHHS stated that the proportion is about the same as what was observed in the previous year.

State data showed the highest number of out-of-state patients coming from Ohio (1,212), Indiana (276), Texas (37), Wisconsin (19), Illinois (16) and Kentucky (14).

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With the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v Wade, The Detroit News reported in an article this summer that women seeking abortion services in Michigan spiked after other states shut down their abortion clinics.

Planned Parenthood has reported that their health centers are now serving triple the previous average and that the out-of-state patients are now making up about 20% of the abortion appointments at their 14 health care centers.

The Detroit News talked with Renee Chelian, founder and president of Northland Family Planning Center, Michigan’s largest abortion provider and she said, “There’s been a flood of Ohio patients. We’re doing our best to take care of as many patients as we can.”

Against the backdrop of about 150 pregnancy resource centers and adoption centers in Michigan, Anna Visser, spokeswoman for Right to Life of Michigan, said, “I think it’s interesting that we have an influx of women coming from other states. And it’s at a very interesting time when Gov. Whitmer’s only goal appears to be to increase abortions in our state, to make sure that we’re an abortion ‘mecca’ of the Great Lakes states.”

That Mecca might increase dramatically if Proposal 3 passes on Tuesday, expanding Michigan into even more of an abortion tourism state. Proposal 3 would codify reproductive and abortion rights into the Michigan Constitution.

Proponents say that the constitutional amendment would establish a new individual right to reproductive freedom including a right to make all decisions about pregnancy and abortion. The exact language in the proposal calls it a “fundamental right.”

Opponents say the proposal would invalidate other existing abortion regulations including parental consent laws for minors and public health standards for abortion clinics.

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When asked which states are currently being represented in Michigan’s abortion statistics for 2022, Planned Parenthoods’ Director of Communications Ashlea Phenicie said, “Most out-of-state patients are traveling from Ohio, but we have also served patients from Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Texas, and other states.”

She said that the passage of Proposal 3 “would ensure that PPMI can continue to serve both Michiganders and out-of-state patients.”

As for assisting out-of-state women looking for abortion services, Phenicie said, “We currently have an abortion patient navigator program that helps patients overcome barriers to care. This can include helping with travel arrangements, connecting patients to financial resources, walking patients through Michigan’s 24-hour consent process, and more.”

Because of the influx of out-of-state abortion demand, Planned Parenthood has said that they are doing what they can to help more people get to Michigan from other states by increasing appointment availability and expanding capacity by hiring additional staff to offer more services to more women.

Governor Whitmer also sees the access to abortion in Michigan as a terrific business opportunity. At the end of September, she had said that Proposal 3 was a great economic development tool for the state. She said if she wins re-election, “I want to go into anti-choice states and start recruiting talent, start recruiting headquarters…I want to walk into Indiana and Ohio and eat their lunch.”

Others aren’t as enamored by Proposal 3. Detroit Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron mailed out a letter recently to hundreds of thousands of Catholic households in southeast Michigan, asking them to reject the proposal, saying that its intentionally vague language would “invalidate virtually all other laws in the state intended to regulate abortion, turning the gruesome procedure into a sort of ‘super right’ in the state’s constitution.”

He went on to say, “By transforming abortion into an ‘individual’ right – as the language proposes – Proposal 3 would apply to all individuals in the state, including children, essentially stripping parents of the right to be involved in their child’s decision to seek an abortion or even being informed of a minor’s medical decisions at all.”

Because Proposal 3 does not limit the abortion access laws to in-state residents, Proposal 3 would stand as the law of the land for ANYONE coming into Michigan to get an abortion at any age. The language in the proposal says “every individual” and has no age limits.