(WWJ) Michigan voters have approved an amendment to enshrine abortion rights in the state's constitution, according to unofficial election results.
Reproductive Freedom For All, the group behind Michigan's Proposal 3 ballot initiative, declared victory early Wednesday morning.
"Organizers and advocates of Reproductive Freedom for All (RFFA) are celebrating the win tonight for Proposal 3, the ballot initiative that restores abortion rights for Michigan women after Roe v. Wade was overturned," officials said in a statement late Tuesday night.
"Now the law of the land in Michigan, Proposal 3 guarantees women will have uninterrupted access to abortion and other critical reproductive health care services."
As of 5:30 a.m., with around 84% of the vote counted, 56% of Michigan voters said "yes" to Proposal 3, while 45% voted against the measure, according to unofficial results reported by the Associated Press.
Following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Michigan was one of just a handful of states to put the question of abortion rights before voters. Although abortion is currently legal in Michigan under a court order, if Prop 3 had failed, there remained the possibility that a 1931 Michigan law banning abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest could have gone back into effect.
Proposal 3 made its way to the ballot after garnering more than 730,000 signatures. While proponents framed it as basically a restoration of rights under Roe, opponents claimed the measure was "too confusing and too extreme."
Whitmer, who was reelected to a second term as governor on Tuesday, had made abortion rights a key focus of her campaign.
Also on Tuesday, voters in California and Vermont, two heavily Democratic states, approved measures enshrining abortion rights in their state constitutions. In conservative Kentucky, the AP reporter voters were on pace to reject a ballot measure that would have amended the constitution to say there is no right to an abortion.
Nationally, three in 10 voters said abortion was their top issue, according to Edison exit polls reported by Reuters. In Michigan, about about half of all voters said it was the most important issue for them.
