This fall, Texas banned abortion past six weeks of pregnancy — which is just two weeks after a missed menstrual cycle, before many people know they’re pregnant. Under the ban, anyone who “aids or abets” abortion can be sued, including doctors who perform the procedure and Uber drivers who transport patients to clinics. And in a legal maneuver that shifts the enforcement of the law toward private citizens, anyone who suspects an abortion was performed outside the six-week mark can sue those involved and collect a $10,000 bounty.
The state official who signed this extreme abortion ban into law, Republican Greg Abbott, is one of 36 governors whose seats are up for grabs in the 2022 midterm elections. And activists are trying to make it clear just how much power this office holds on everything from abortion rights to voting access. Teen Vogue spoke with governors and activists in three closely watched states about their hopes, fears, and strategy ahead of the midterms.
With a Republican majority in the Michigan House and Senate, Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer tells Teen Vogue her veto is the last line of defense between Michigan resembling Texas on women’s reproductive health. At the end of September, Whitmer vetoed $16 million in anti-choice legislation, which included $1.5 million for “pregnancy resource centers,” which are known for dissuading women from going through with an abortion. With a 6-3 conservative majority in the Supreme Court and major cases challenging Roe v. Wade on their docket, Whitmer sees why people would be discouraged. But, she says, “we can’t disengage because it’s so ugly and maddening. We have to redouble our efforts. We can’t give up. Generations are counting on us.”
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Whitmer is facing a tough reelection campaign, facing off against Republican James Craig, who calls himself “unapologetically pro-life." In a recording obtained by the Metro Times, he mused that he might allow exceptions for incest or rape. For Kristen Harter, a community organizer with Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan (PPAM), “that’s not how it works. To stand for abortion is to stand for all that abortion is — for the right to get one.” Harter says that the days after the Texas ban went into effect were the first time they truly felt Roe was in jeopardy. In their work with PPAM, they want to shift the conversation from abortion as a moral decision to abortion as a health care decision.
Michigan is one of several states that has a decades-old law on the books outlawing abortion, meaning that if Roe is overturned and Craig becomes governor, abortion could be illegal there. Hillary Poudeu, a 17-year-old policy lead volunteer lead with Planned Parenthood's Youth Advocacy Group, wants Michigan politicians to focus on repealing that 1931 law in order to protect Michiganders’ right to choose. To other young people thinking about getting involved with reproductive rights activism, she says, “the moment is here and we have power. This affects us. Even if abortion might not be your choice, it should be protected under law.”
The battleground state of Nevada is currently helmed by Governor Steve Sisolak, who is an outspoken supporter of Planned Parenthood. In a 2018 ad, he showed his support for the organization alongside his daughters, Ashley and Carley. “It’s a personal issue to me. I raised two daughters by myself and there are certain things that young girls just don’t talk to their dads about and reproductive rights are one of them,” Sisolak tells Teen Vogue. “I took them to Planned Parenthood and they took advantage of the services and counseling that were offered.” The governor says he’s thankful the resource was there for his daughters and he wants to maintain it for other people across his state.
Throughout his time in office, Sisolak has gone against the national trend of restricting reproductive rights, moving to expand abortion access in Nevada. In the wake of the Texas abortion ban, some people are even traveling to Nevada to access care. But all that could change in 2022. Sisolak is fighting to keep his seat and while there isn’t an official Republican nominee yet, Dean Heller announced his plans to join the race after praising Texas’s abortion ban. “The people I’m running against are trying to take Roe back. They love what Abbott has done and I find great concern in that,” Sisolak tells Teen Vogue. “I don’t want to go back to where you have back-alley abortions and people traveling across state lines. These are decisions that should be made between a woman and their doctor, not the government.”
Thea Sweet, a Maine Youth Power fellow, is no stranger to fighting for progress. Thea, who was raised in what she calls a “nontraditional family,” was adopted from Cambodia by two mothers who were both political activists. (One of her mothers is Dale McCormick, the first openly gay member of the Maine state legislature.) Thea says that from the age of seven, she was involved in politics, from phone-banking to leaflet distribution and canvassing.
And although the right to abortion is currently protected in Maine, Thea isn’t opting out of this fight — especially because, as she sees it, her own senator, Republican Susan Collins, is one of the reasons Roe is now in such jeopardy. Though Collins has said she is pro-choice, she was a deciding vote in confirming the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a nominee of President Trump who, as a candidate, promised that all his judicial nominees would be anti-abortion. Collins said Kavanaugh had assured her he viewed Roe as “settled law,” but the justice has made anti-choice rulings in the past. Thea says it’s been distressing for Maine residents who believed Collins was pro-choice, and would vote accordingly to confirm pro-choice justices. “Mainers thought Susan Collins would stay true to her word and that’s why they voted for her as a moderate Republican,” Thea says. “But she doesn’t stand with protecting our rights to abortion.”
Current Maine governor Janet Mills is facing off against anti-choice former governor Paul LePage in 2022. “One election can change the course of a state,” Mills tells Teen Vogue. “We governors have to hold the line and protect women at every stage.”
Like Thea, the makeup of the Supreme Court is top of mind for Mills who says that “now that [Trump’s justices] have lifetime appointments, anything goes. If the Supreme Court does overrule Roe v. Wade, whether directly or indirectly, it’s going to fall on the state to pick up the cause and do the right thing by women.”
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