Trump-backed state Supreme Court candidate O’Grady threatens abortion access across Michigan

LANSING — In case you missed it, Donald Trump threw his weight behind extremist Republican Patrick O’Grady in the race for the state Supreme Court against historic incumbent Justice Kyra Harris Bolden. While Bolden has made history as the youngest, and first, Black woman to serve on the state’s highest court, O’Grady could make history by undermining Michiganders’ fundamental rights. 

Michiganders have been clear about their support for abortion access and reproductive rights, rejecting Trump in 2022, passing Prop 3, and electing a pro-choice Democratic majority in the state House and Senate. Despite this, extremists like Trump and O’Grady could enforce dangerous, archaic abortion bans that would put thousands of lives at risk here in Michigan. 

Make no mistake, abortion is on the ballot this year — and if Trump has allies on our state Supreme Court, all of the progress we have made in Michigan could be lost. We must elect Justice Kyra Harris Bolden and Kimberly Ann Thomas to the state Supreme Court this fall if we want to protect our future from extremists like Donald Trump and Patrick O’Grady. 

Read more below: 

The Gander: Trump endorsement could put abortion back on the ballot in Michigan Supreme Court race

• Ex-President Donald Trump is throwing his support behind Republican Patrick O’Grady in Michigan’s high-stakes Supreme Court race this November, backing yet another judge who could help strip abortion rights from women…
  
  
• Trump has repeatedly bragged about appointing three conservative justices to the US Supreme Court who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, a decision which has led to abortion bans taking effect in 22 states and reproductive rights being ripped away from millions of women…
  
  
• Due to the efforts of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Supreme Court, Michiganders never lost access to their reproductive freedoms after Roe was repealed.
  
  
• On the same day of the ruling, Whitmer filed a motion urging a court to declare the state’s 1931 abortion ban unconstitutional. A subsequent injunction prevented that old law from ever being enforced before the state Supreme Court later found it to be unconstitutional.
  
  
• An overwhelming majority of Michiganders also voted in support of Proposal 3 at the polls in 2022, officially cementing the right to reproductive care into the state Constitution. And last year, Democratic lawmakers sealed the deal by repealing the 1931 abortion ban altogether. 
  
  
• But this year, with two seats up for grabs on the Michigan Supreme Court in November, Trump is supporting O’Grady, who could help flip control of the state’s highest court—and set the stage for a new, more restrictive era for reproductive rights in 2025…
  
  
• During a recent debate, O’Grady introduced himself as a Christian man who, if elected, would adhere to a strict, textualist interpretation of the state Constitution as a “rule of law judge.” 
  
  
• That’s the same judicial philosophy that guided the majority on the US Supreme Court that overturned Roe and peeled back the constitutional right to abortion for millions of women…
  
  
• “It’s critical that we have fair and impartial justices on the Michigan Supreme Court who will uphold the abortion rights Michiganders have fought so hard to enshrine,” said Shanay Watson-Whittaker, Michigan Campaigns Director for Reproductive Freedom for All. “We know that Kyra Harris Bolden and Kimberly Ann Thomas are the judges to do the job.”