For House candidate Janise O’Neil Robinson: Protecting Reproductive Rights is Personal

Janise O’Neil Robinson, Democratic candidate for Michigan House District 28, says she wants to defend reproductive rights if elected to the Michigan House of Representatives. According to Robinson, “I will support and trust women to make [reproductive health care] decisions with their partners, families and medical staff – not politicians.” Robinson says her support for reproductive rights comes from personal experience. She had to have surgery and required help from a fertility specialist after having her first miscarriage and being unable to conceive on her own. She was able to have one child, but says that “the idea that anyone but our doctors should be involved in the healthcare decisions we make is inappropriate.” 

In April 2023, the year after the Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade, Michigan’s 1931 abortion ban could have been allowed to take effect, but Michigan’s Democratic-controlled legislature voted to repeal the ban, protecting abortion rights in Michigan in a post-Roe world.    

Robinson’s Republican opponent is incumbent Rep. Jamie Thompson. Rep. Thompson, who was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in November 2022, indicated on a 2022 voter guide that she supported “prohibiting abortion except when necessary to save the mother’s life.” Rep. Thompson has been endorsed by anti-choice group Right to Life of Michigan PAC, which requires its endorsed candidates to support abortion bans, even in the case of rape and incest. Rep. Thompson also voted against the package of bills that stripped the 1931 abortion ban from Michigan law. 

The Michigan Republican Party applauded the Supreme Court’s decision to repeal Roe v. Wade, and a majority of Republican legislators in Michigan voted against the repeal of the state’s 1931 abortion ban, which could have taken effect after the Supreme Court’s decision. 

Note: this article has been updated to reflect the results of the August 6 primary.