The Michigan Bureau of Elections resumed the vetting process for the petition drive to end dismemberment abortions. The Bureau set June 1 as the deadline for challenges to the signatures.

It’s been nearly a year since we began collecting signatures to end the violent late-term dismemberment abortion procedure. As many of you know, the petition drive has overcome an exhaustive list of challenges, now including a global pandemic. We are excited to finally see the finish line in the distance.

A sample of 500 signatures was pulled by the Bureau, which will determine the overall validity rate of the submitted signatures. The Michigan Values Life coalition submitted 379,419 signatures on December 23, 2019. 340,047 signatures are needed to initiate the ban on dismemberment abortions in the Michigan Legislature.

Planned Parenthood said they will consider challenging our signatures. They want to continue profiting off this heinous procedure. We went above and beyond our normal process for checking our signatures because of the uncertain 2018 change in the petition drive law. We hope to exceed our previous record of a 97 percent validity rate during our 2004 petition drive to ban partial-birth abortions.

If enough valid signatures remain following the challenge period, the petition will be certified by the Board of State Canvassers and the dismemberment ban will be sent to the Legislature for consideration with a 40-day time limit. Majority votes in the House and Senate will pass the dismemberment ban into law without Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s signature. Initiated legislation that isn’t passed into law is placed on the general election ballot for a public vote.

We’re confident our prolife elected majorities in the Legislature will do the right thing and vote for this ban again, just like they did in May of 2019. This time, it will become law.

Hopefully on June 2 we will have a happy update about the end of the signature stage of this long process, and the beginning of the voting stage!