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Michigan Sen. Gary Peters shares personal abortion story ahead of vote to potentially codify Roe v. Wade

By Veronica Meadows and Amber Ainsworth
Published  May 10, 2022 6:37pm EDT
Roe v. Wade
FOX 2 Detroit

Sen. Peters shares abortion story ahead of Roe v. Wade vote

Sen. Gary Peters is sharing how an abortion was necessary to protect his former wife. The senate will decide on whether or not Roe v. Wade should be codified on Wednesday.

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Roe v. Wade is a deeply personal topic for many people on both sides of the abortion debate.

Michigan Sen. Gary Peters will tell an abortion story he has shared before when he speaks on the United States Senate floor Tuesday night. The Senate will vote to codify Roe v. Wade on Wednesday. 

"It was a situation with a wanted baby. A medical emergency arose, and it was a medical emergency that required an abortion in order to protect my former wife’s health and potentially her life, yet it is being denied because of politics according to the physicians," Peters said. 

He said they scrambled to find another doctor who had to immediately do the procedure, otherwise his former wife could have gone septic and died. 

Wednesday's vote comes after a leaked draft opinion from the United States Supreme Court signaled the justices are poised to overturn Roe.

Peters said overturning Roe would make it "where daughters have fewer rights than their mothers."

Meanwhile, Genevieve Marnon from Right to Life of Michigan says they want to see the issue of abortion returned to the states.

"I see that potentially the right to the life of that unborn child is being restored," she said. "The rights of over 62 million children were taken away – their right to exist, the right to life was stripped from them, and we’ve now lost more than 62 million babies in the United States alone."

The vote is not expected to pass. If it does not and Roe v. Wade is overturned, states could ban abortions. 

In Michigan, a 1931 law makes abortion a felony unless the mother's life is in danger. Separately, people are collecting signatures to get abortion on November's ballot— which would change Michigan's constitution to allow for an abortion if it is voted in. 

More: Who could be prosecuted if Roe v Wade is overturned

"If Roe is overturned and the decisions come back to the states, we’ll see real democracy in action. We’ll see representative government, and will let the states decide for themselves what they want, and in Michigan hopefully we will be able to return once again the legal protections to the unborn, and become an abortion-free state," Marnon said.