Republican Michigan Legislature candidates backed unpopular abortion restrictions

Michigan Republicans Kevin Whiteford and state Rep. Mark Tisdel have both backed restrictive abortion laws. It could hurt their campaigns for the Michigan Legislature.

Democrats currently hold a two-seat majority in the Michigan House of Representatives. All of the Legislature’s seats are up for reelection this year.

Rep. Mark Tisdel has served in the Michigan House of Representatives since 2021. He currently represents District 55, which includes portions of Oakland County.

In 2022, Michigan voters approved Proposal 3, a citizen-initiated ballot measure that enshrined a right to an abortion into the state constitution. A year later, Democratic lawmakers in Michigan moved to further strengthen abortion access by passing the Reproductive Health Act, a package of nine bills that mostly undid superfluous abortion restrictions.

House Bill 4949, for example, codified a right to an abortion into state law. It also repealed the Abortion Insurance Opt-Out Act, a 2019 law that prohibited private health insurance plans from covering reproductive care in basic plans.

Tisdel opposed the Reproductive Health Act. He went a step further by introducing House Bill 5012, legislation that sought to ban abortion after fetal viability, even though Proposal 3 already imposed such restrictions.

Tisdel has been endorsed by Right To Life Of Michigan, a far-right group that advocates for abortion bans.

Kevin Whiteford is an accountant. He is challenging incumbent Democratic Rep. Joey Andrews in District 38.

Whiteford ran for the same seat in 2022. In that campaign, he told the Holland Sentinel that he believes life begins at conception and suggested a fertilized egg should have legal protections.

“I believe life starts at conception,” Whiteford said. “It has its own DNA, to me that means it has a constitutional right.”

In July 2022 candidate, Whiteford celebrated the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and reiterated his belief that life begins at conception.

“First of all, that decision said the federal government should — it should be in the position of the residents to vote on, and that’s what we believe in,” Whiteford said. “I believe the federal government needs to get out of a lot of things: education, this issue, and businesses. First of all, I am pro-life. I believe in life at conception. I believe that pro-life means life at conception all the way to the end of life. When the kids get born, we need to figure out how to make them productive citizens of this country, and we need to get them productive citizens of this district, and so they stay in this district.”

In October 2022, the Herald-Palladium reported Whiteford would allow abortion exceptions for survivrors rape or incest, but only in the first trimester of pregnancy.

More recently, Whiteford has been active in a Facebook group called “Stop Little Joey,” which refers to Andrews. Whiteford has commented on the group’s posts and had his own Facebook posts shared by the group.

Prior to 2023, “Stop Little Joey” operated under different names, including “the Berrien County Young Republicans” and “Berrien County Republican Action.”

On Sept. 17, the group made a post criticizing Andrews for supporting “legalized abortion.” On Jan 17, the group shared a poll asking its members if it would support an abortion at 15 weeks gestation, shorter than the 24 weeks currently allowed by Michigan law.

The Tisdale and Whiteford campaigns did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.