Michigan’s Prop 3 Allows Children to Obtain Trans Hormones and Surgeries Without Parental Consent

Susan Berry, PhD

Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer and her allies at Planned Parenthood have been marketing Michigan’s Proposal (Prop) 3 as an abortion amendment that would codify Roe v. Wade, but the measure would also allow children to obtain “gender affirming” hormones and surgeries without parental consent under the banner of “reproductive care.”

“Michigan is hiding a children’s constitutional right to genital amputation in its abortion amendment,” Margot Cleveland, senior legal correspondent at the Federalist, warned Wednesday.

“Deceptive marketing by Planned Parenthood and far-left politicians, such as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, hides this reality from Michigan voters, leading Prop 3 to be uniformly referred to as ‘the abortion amendment’ even though the expansive language of the proposed constitutional amendment reaches far beyond abortion,” Cleveland said.

To be sure, characterizing the abortion amendment as an opportunity for Michigan to simply get back to where things were under Roe does not do justice to its radical extremity in that realm.

“Prop 3 goes far beyond the controlling Roe-Casey precedent,” Cleveland wrote. “If passed, the constitutional amendment would create an extreme regime in Michigan of abortion on demand, at any time, for any reason, without informed or parental consent, and paid for by taxpayers.”

Madeleine Kearns recalled Sunday at National Review how Prop 3 came about:

When the Supreme Court overruled Roe in June, Michigan would have reverted to a 1931 pro-life law which protected all human life from conception, with exceptions only to save the life of the mother. But following the court leak of the Dobbs decision in May, Judge Elizabeth Gleicher — a former legal representative for Planned Parenthood who has contributed to the organization financially — preemptively rendered the law unenforceable through injunction.

The amendment’s first paragraph states:

Every individual has a fundamental right to reproductive freedom, which entails the right to make and effectuate decisions about all matters relating to pregnancy, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion care, miscarriage management, and infertility care.

“The state shall not discriminate in the protection or enforcement of this fundamental right,” the amendment continues.

The ”right” granted by the amendment pertains to “every individual,” without any mention of the age or sex of the “individual.”

“As a matter of constitutional interpretation, then, the rights guaranteed by Prop 3 would be rights that both adults and children possess as ‘individuals,’ and the rights apply equally to males and females,” Cleveland explains, noting that, currently, parental consent is required in Michigan for children to obtain medical treatment or drugs.

With regard to abortion, minor girls must have the written consent of one parent to have the procedure, but can also seek permission for an abortion from a judge. The amendment would do away with either of these requirements because of its guarantee of “autonomous decision-making”:

A state interest is “compelling” only if it is for the limited purpose of protecting the health of an individual seeking care, consistent with accepted clinical standards of practice and evidence-based medicine, and does not infringe on that individual’s autonomous decision-making.

A right to “autonomous decision-making” is also applied to “all matters relating to pregnancy, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion care, miscarriage management, and infertility care.”

“Under Michigan law currently, minors cannot be chemically or surgically sterilized (or rendered infertile) without their parents’ consent, and even then most physicians would refuse to sterilize a minor — except in the case of transgender-identifying patients,” Cleveland observed, noting the establishment medical community has succumbed to gender ideology and welcomes practices it refers to as “gender affirming care,” a category that includes puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries such as double mastectomies and castrations.

Passage of Prop 3 would be a sure financial win for Planned Parenthood.

In addition to its status as America’s abortion industry giant, the organization has grown to become the second largest provider of transgender hormone treatments in the nation.

And Whitmer is right on board, tweeting last week that abortion restrictions amount to a desire to “take away a woman’s freedom,” and that “decisions about abortion must be made between a woman, her doctor, and her trusted community – not politicians.”

However, former Planned Parenthood director-turned pro-life activist Abby Johnson recently explained to The Star News Network how that “autonomous” decision-making process between a pregnant woman and an abortion doctor actually goes.

“To say that abortion should be a decision between a ‘woman and her doctor’ is a complete cop-out,” Johnson asserted. “What that really means is advocating support for ending the life of a child for any reason at any point in pregnancy, something that a vast majority of Americans don’t agree with.”

“Americans need to understand that abortion doctors do not spend a lot of time with patients before committing abortions,” said Johnson, the founder of And Then There Were None, a ministry that helps abortion workers leave the industry.

“Often, they don’t even speak to the patient and the patient doesn’t even know the name of their doctor,” she explained. “They are there to do abortions as fast and as efficiently as possible.”

“With less than one month to go before Michiganders cast their final ballots, little time remains to give proof to the left’s lie that Prop 3 is about codifying Roe,” Cleveland concluded. “It is not. It is about sacrificing the children of the state — both born and unborn.”

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Susan Berry, PhD, is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].

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