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Right to Life says it will not push for petition drive to end D&C abortions

Courtesy rtl.org

An anti-abortion group says it's dropping its effort to ask voters whether to ban an abortion procedure.

The petition would have banned dilation and evacuation, or "D&E" abortions.

They're the most commonly used abortions in the second trimester.

Right to Life of Michigan needed some 340-thousand valid signatures to get the issue on the ballot, but the Bureau of Elections said too many signatures were duplicates or had other problems.

Lori Carpentier is with Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan.

"Right to Life of Michigan would have bypassed the regular desire of the people of Michigan and inserted themselves in between physicians and patients to do what would have been right and an entirely legal procedure," says Carpentier . 

Right to Life of Michigan says it's shifting its focus to the 2020 elections.

Kate Wells is a Peabody Award-winning journalist and co-host of the Michigan Radio and NPR podcast Believed. The series was widely ranked among the best of the year, drawing millions of downloads and numerous awards. She and co-host Lindsey Smith received the prestigious Livingston Award for Young Journalists. Judges described their work as "a haunting and multifaceted account of U.S.A. Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar’s belated arrest and an intimate look at how an army of women – a detective, a prosecutor and survivors – brought down the serial sex offender."