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One year ago this week, the Supreme Court issued its Dobbs decision, which meant that millions of Americans no longer had guaranteed access to abortion care. It was a political earthquake, and in many ways the ground is still shaking.
For decades, the politics around abortion had been pretty well set, with the Roe v Wade decision making abortion legal nationwide. Republicans wanted Roe overturned, and that motivated their voters. Democrats, on the other hand, simply weren’t as energized by the issue, and Democratic politicians often shied away from talking about abortion.
But after Roe was overturned, the politics flipped.
“The threat of women losing a right we’ve come to expect and rely on, after 50 years of having it mobilized people, it enraged people,” said Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in an interview with NPR. “It coalesced people.”How Dobbs motivated voters in Michigan in 2022
Abortion was on the ballot in Michigan in 2022 — quite literally — as residents voted on a referendum establishing a state constitutional right to abortion and contraception.
On election night 2022, the polls closed at 8 p.m. in Michigan, but anyone already in line, could stay and vote.
“The last voter to vote at the University of Michigan was a little after 2 in the morning,” said Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich. “They stood in line for hours. They were not going to let Republicans take away a fundamental right that their mothers had.”
Peters led nationwide efforts to get Democrats elected and re-elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022 and he’s been tapped to do the same in 2024. He says the Dobbs effect was clear and he doesn’t see it fading.
Democrats did better than expected in the midterm elections. In a break from the past, they talked extensively about abortion rights, saying it was a matter of freedom and painting Republicans as extreme. Their voters showed up and independents broke towards the Democratic candidates in key races.
