Proposal 3 sign from 2023. (Susan J. Demas/Michigan Advance)

Right to Life of Michigan, alongside several parents, have filed an appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to their lawsuit against Gov. Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

The suit in the appellate court seeks to argue that Proposal 3, which was a ballot initiative in 2022 that enshrined reproductive freedoms, including the right to an abortion, in the Michigan State Constitution, “threatens parental rights related to a minor child’s decision to seek an abortion,” according to a press release from Right to Life of Michigan.

The case was first filed in November 2023 in federal district court in the Western District of Michigan, where Judge Paul Maloney dismissed the case on Sept. 30, stating in his opinion that “The court finds that Plaintiffs lack standing.”

The initial lawsuit sought to completely overturn Proposal 3, arguing that it violated multiple clauses of the U.S. Constitution, including the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

The full text of the appeal has not yet been filed with the court, but Right to Life characterized it as a “narrow appeal” specifically centered on the issue of parental rights. They cite the Fourteenth Amendment specifically as protecting parental rights.

The parents joining the appeal are identified as Celina Asberg, Grace Fisher, John Hubbard and Andrea Smith, all of whom were plaintiffs in the initial case. Not all of the parties in the initial case have joined the appeal.

“Today’s appeal seeks to protect parental rights, which are now at unprecedented risk due to Proposal 3’s broad language,” Amber Roseboom, the president of Right to Life of Michigan, said in the group’s news release. “It shocks the conscience to see the rampant disregard for the role of parents in helping guide their children through decisions that will impact their mental and physical wellbeing, which is undeniably the case with abortion.”

“The threat to parental consent for abortion would jeopardize a critical, long-standing safeguard in protecting children from harm,” Roseboom continued.

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