“What we have seen for years is that lack of access to abortion or restrictions around abortion also occur in states that have some of the fewest supports,” says Jocelyn Frye, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families.
“The folks pushing the harshest restrictions around reproductive rights are also the ones who don’t support the child tax credit or the child care expansion or paid family leave,” she says.
“And if you get out of the work-family policies, they are also the ones pushing voting rights restrictions,” Frye adds. “What it says to me is that this is really not about supporting women or families. It is not about women’s health. It is about a different type of agenda that mostly involves controlling women and controlling women’s bodies and furthering a particular ideology and viewpoint. And that is contrary to the rhetoric around supporting women and families.”

Shaina Goodman, director of reproductive health and rights at the National Partnership for Women & Families, a non-partisan abortion rights advocacy group, said “real people are suffering as a result” of the to-be-determined status of abortion in states like Michigan. She said restrictions may push people to pursue unofficial abortions that wouldn’t be reported to the state.