Board puts abortion rights question on Michigan fall ballot

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan election board placed an abortion-rights proposal on the fall ballot Friday, obeying an order from the state's highest court and closing a record-breaking petition drive to try to amend the state constitution.

The amendment would affirm the right to make pregnancy-related decisions without interference in Michigan, including abortion and other reproductive services such as birth control.

The Michigan Supreme Court a day earlier ordered the Board of State Canvassers to put it on the Nov. 8 ballot. The board, comprised of two Democrats and two Republicans, had killed the proposal in a tie vote last week, with GOP members siding with abortion opponents who said the petition had improper or no spacing between certain words.

Chief Justice Bridget McCormack derisively called it a “game of gotcha gone very bad.” She said the words were legible and in correct order.