Winnie Brinks: Dems risk losing abortion protections if they support Prop 1 after DeBoyer remarks

Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, said Tuesday that members of her party and voters statewide should take her Republican counterpart Rep. Jay DeBoyer at his word regarding his stance on using a Constitutional Convention to repeal Michigan’s abortion protections.

Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, spoke on a press call about a recording of comments made by DeBoyer, R-Clay, over the weekend in which he said he was considering his vote on Michigan’s proposal to open a constitutional convention based in large part on the opportunity it would present for Republicans to roll back or replace landmark citizen-approved constitutional amendments regarding abortion and marijuana.

“We fought so hard to make sure that we’ve enshrined so many rights in our constitution – voting rights and reproductive rights,” Brinks told reporters on Tuesday. “Among them, we are very concerned that they do have their eye on eroding or eliminating those essential rights, and I think what we heard from DeBoyer is proof that that’s the case. We really need to make sure that people understand who is looking out for their rights and who is looking to take them away.”

DeBoyer was asked about his plans for voting on Proposal 1 during a Calhoun County Republican Party event on Sept. 12, to which he responded he had “gone round and round in (his) brain on this.” In audio reported by The Detroit News, he said Michigan currently has “abortion on demand up until birth and virtually unregulated marijuana sales” due to constitutional amendments.

DeBoyer said he was weighing the negatives of voting for Proposal 1 against Democrats “weaponizing constitutional amendments” on issues like abortion and marijuana.

“You could argue that we lost a lot of races because of them weaponizing those two ballot proposals in 2018 and 2022,” he said. “Marijuana; abortion. They used it as a tool to get people to turn out.”

DeBoyer said he’s ultimately still uncertain of how he’ll vote come November, but that a Constitutional Convention “might be (Republicans’) only way to make some of these modifications” and said his “staunch pro-life” views make it “tough” to decide.

DeBoyer later walked back his comments in a statement to The News and a spokesperson for Republican gubernatorial candidate John James dismissed the topic as a non-issue.

“The abortion issue has been settled by the people of Michigan,” James campaign spokesperson Alyvia Bailey said in a Tuesday statement. “Any further back and forth on this topic is clearly being pushed by the radical left and liberal media to distract from the fact that this Democrat ticket in Michigan has gone so far to the extreme that they won’t even disavow those who say America deserved 9/11.”

Brinks scoffed at Bailey’s comment on the press call, arguing that the issue “clearly isn’t settled as long as John James and Jay DeBoyer have a shot at becoming governor and lieutenant governor” and saying the James campaign is “clearly trying to say one thing and do another, or say nothing and then go after our rights.”

“In 2022, Michiganders voted to enshrine access to reproductive freedom as a constitutional right by an overwhelming 13-point margin,” Brinks said. “The message (they) set was clear: we are tired of politicians getting between us and our life-saving medical care, and if you weren’t paying attention, you might have thought that Michigan Republicans had finally gotten the message because they had stopped publicly talking about their obsession with meddling in our private medical decisions.”

Brinks said it will be necessary for Democrats to remind their electorate and the wider swath of voters who supported Proposal 2022-3 that voting in favor of this year’s Proposal 1, the measure to convene delegates for a constitutional convention, opens up the possibility of hard-won citizen-driven policy achievements being diminished or stricken entirely.

“The same people who have effectively enshrined reproductive rights and other rights and voting rights are the same folks who have been saying we need change. I think helping them understand that the things that they have worked for over the last decade or so are at risk if we let the Republicans fool us into putting this on the table and opening it up, (will be important), because we know their intentions are clear,” Brinks said. “They want to erode things that have passed with popular support in recent years, in particular, so I have confidence that when we help connect those ideas, that we’ll be able to share that message as we are out on the trail, talking with voters throughout the state.”

Shanay Watson-Whittaker, director of Michigan campaigns for Reproductive Freedom for All, echoed Brinks on the call. She did not respond directly to a question about whether RFA intends to put money behind any of the existing efforts to campaign against Proposal 1 or begin its own push for Michiganders to vote no but said the organization will continue supporting its endorsed candidates up and down the ticket who are speaking about how Republicans “will use every lever at their disposal” to curtail abortion access.

“The GOP ticket will find any avenue for a backdoor abortion ban, not just Prop 1,” Watson-Whittaker said. “We’re looking at John James’s votes in the past. We’re looking at Jay DeBoyer’s votes in the past. We heard his message the other day. They’ll use any means possible to overturn what 56% of Michiganders voted for: reproductive freedom.”

Asked whether she thinks it would be important for Democrats to increase messaging on Proposal 1 and inform voters about the potential consequences of a con-con, Brinks said she thinks she and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson, along with down-ballot Democrats across the state, are “more than happy to have the conversation as it comes up” and would “share (their) perspectives” with “anybody who’s concerned.”

“I do think that this does put a finer point on it,” she said. “When you see a candidate for lieutenant governor alongside John James for governor specifically stating that this is a tool that they would use to erode our rights, our fundamental rights to reproductive freedom, that’s a bit of a wake-up call, and I think folks are going to notice that.”