Michigan Bishop Earl Boyea urged Catholics to “fight like heaven” to stop a proposed state constitutional amendment that would allow unborn babies to be aborted through all nine months of pregnancy.
Crux reports the Lansing bishop responded over the weekend after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a pro-abortion Democrat, told people to “fight like hell” to keep abortion on demand legal in Michigan.
In a pastoral letter, Boyea asked Catholics to join him in prayer and fasting for unborn babies and mothers. He said the proposed amendment, which will be on the ballot in November, is “the most extreme abortion proposal this country has ever witnessed,” according to the report.
State pro-life advocates nicknamed the proposal the Anything Goes Abortion Amendment because it would allow abortions through all nine months of pregnancy and allow anyone, including people without any medical training, to “assist” with an abortion in Michigan, according to the Citizens to Support Michigan Women and Children.
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To “fight like heaven” against the measure, Boyea said Catholics first must “employ the three great spiritual weapons of the Christian life: Prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Second comes action,” Crux reports.
The bishop said his diocese also plans to hold a 54-day Rosary Novena beginning Thursday through Nov. 8 to pray for babies in the womb.
“The most important frontline in this battle for life and love, however, will be the local parish,” Boyea said. “It will be you. If each of us does what we can – including prayer, sacrifice and action – we will overcome this attack on life. It’s as dramatic and as simple as that.”
The Michigan Catholic Conference and other pro-life organizations recently formed a coalition, Citizens to Support Michigan Women and Children, to educate voters about the radical pro-abortion amendment.
A legal analysis by John Bursch, a former Michigan solicitor general and senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, identified 47 state laws that could be erased if the amendment passes, according to the coalition. These include laws about late-term abortions, infanticide, parental consent, the age of consent to have sex, abortion facility inspections and other safety measures.
Currently, Michigan law requires parents to consent for their underage child to have basically any medical procedure, from having their tonsils removed to an abortion. However, the amendment would create an exception for abortion, making it so a girl as young as 12 could have an abortion without her parents’ knowledge or consent.
Another part of the amendment would prohibit state officials from prosecuting anyone who “assists” with an abortion, whether it’s a school counselor helping a 13-year-old get an abortion without her parents’ knowledge or an untrained abortion worker performing an abortion, according to the coalition.
Find the full analysis of the amendment here.
Earlier this summer, state pro-life leaders challenged the proposed constitutional amendment after finding 60 errors on a petition circulated by the pro-abortion group Reproductive Freedom for All to place it on the ballot. Last week, however, the state Supreme Court ruled that the Board of State Canvassers must allow the amendment to be placed on the ballot.
Michigan is a major abortion battleground state. Pro-life Republicans control the state legislature, but pro-abortion Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer repeatedly has vetoed life-saving legislation. In July, Whitmer even vetoed $21.4 million in funding to support pregnant and parenting mothers who choose life for their babies.
Michigan has a pre-Roe v. Wade law that protects unborn babies by banning abortions, but a judge recently blocked the law at the request of pro-abortion groups. The amendment could invalidate the law completely if it passes.
Nearly 30,000 unborn babies are aborted in Michigan every year.
