Michigan voters will choose on Nov. 8 whether women have a right to choose
CBC
While there's very little public discussion of abortion in northern Ontario, the debate is heading to the ballot box this fall next door in Michigan.
A referendum question known as Proposal 3 being put to voters on Nov. 8 would enshrine reproductive rights, including abortion and contraception, in the state constitution.
It's meant to clear up the uncertainty left after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the landmark Roe v Wade ruling three months ago.
The voicemail at the only abortion clinic on Michigan's Upper Peninsula informs callers that "abortion is still legal in the state of Michigan."
But that clinic in Marquette is a long drive from the border town of Sault Ste. Marie, so when Natalie Olstrom needed to terminate a pregnancy two years ago, she drove to southern Michigan instead.
She and her fiancé have been trying to have children for a while, but after suffering through several miscarriages, she decided to have weight-loss surgery to help improve her chances of carrying a child to term. She became pregnant while waiting for the operation.
"So I was stuck between a rock and a hard place," said Olstrom, now 23.
"Just a lot of internal battles with myself. If this is the right decision. Kind of looking up and saying 'Give me a sign if I shouldn't do this,' but nothing happened, so I just arrived and went through with it."
Olstrom says this is a personal issue for her, because her parents couldn't get pregnant naturally and then adopted her, and they are both devout Catholics, so she feared they would "never talk to me again."
"They actually told me they were really sorry that I had to go through with that and mentally battle it alone with my fiancé because they would have been part of that conversation," she said.
"Which was a real shock to me, because my whole life it's been the opposite, but I guess when it's happening to someone that they love."
Olstrom, who told her story during a pro-choice rally in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan this summer, is going to help to get the vote out for the referendum, but won't try to convince her mom and dad.
"I know my family is all very against it. We just don't bring up politics any more. I do get a little bit heated," she said.
"I think they're going to vote for the ban. I really do. But obviously I can only hope that they vote in favour of women's rights."
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