This November, voters in California and Vermont will decide whether to enshrine “reproductive freedom” in their state constitutions. A similar ballot measure titled “Reproductive Freedom for All” has been proposed in Michigan and is awaiting a final signature count.
What exactly does “reproductive freedom” entail?
The California initiative expressly prohibits any state interference with people’s “most intimate decisions, which includes their fundamental right to choose to have an abortion and their fundamental right to choose or refuse contraceptives.” Note that the amendment does not limit “intimate decisions” to abortion and contraception, but opens the door to a host of other so-called “reproductive freedoms.”
The Vermont amendment is even more broad, holding that “the right to reproductive liberty is central to the exercise of personal autonomy.” The amendment prohibits state interference with personal reproductive autonomy, which is “central to the liberty and dignity to determine one’s own life course.”
Michigan’s initiative is more specific in that reproductive freedom is defined as “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. If passed, the amendment would prohibit prosecution for any “pregnancy outcome,” including – but not limited to – miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion. This vague language means someone who kills a baby born alive during an abortion may escape prosecution.
Regarding assisted reproduction as a protected “reproductive freedom,” these amendments are a precursor to forcing insurance companies to cover in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and surrogacy. A California bill would require insurers to pay for fertility services because of “a person’s inability to reproduce either as an individual or with their partner without medical intervention.” I’m not a biologist, but the last time I checked, no one is able to reproduce as an individual. Laws like this open the floodgates for the exploitation of women through egg harvesting and unregulated surrogacy.
None of these amendments limit “reproductive freedom” to adults – or even to women. Planned Parenthood and other groups supporting these initiatives want to children to obtain birth control and abortions without any parental involvement. They are desperately looking for ways to circumvent state restrictions on abortion enacted after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Some groups ship abortion drugs to women and girls in states where abortion is prohibited and even transport women and girls across state lines to circumvent abortion laws.
The amendments proposed in California, Vermont and Michigan (with more to come) are nothing less than the intent to destroy God’s created order and the boundaries He has set in place for our protection. Abolishing the framework He established for the safeguarding of our lives and our souls is not freedom; it is bondage.
I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts. Psalm 119 45