“It’s a really troubling time,” Whitmer, a staunch advocate for women’s rights, said. Looking back to the June 2022 repeal of Roe v. Wade, which returned abortion decisions to the state level and resulted in more restrictions across multiple states, Whitmer noted how it also encouraged a groundswell of sorts, with people digging in to fight to protect these reproductive rights. But it can’t stop there. “I’m sad to say that this is an ongoing, worrisome situation where you’ve got a Supreme Court that has upended the law; you have states that are going forward and making it harder to be a woman in their states, cutting off access to health care,” she said. For Whitmer, it’s important that young people know the laws of the state they choose to live in, that they vote with their feet and at the ballot box, and continue to stay engaged with organizations helping women access reproductive healthcare. “At this moment, we can’t change what happened at the Supreme Court, but we can at the community-level make a difference,” Whitmer said.
