Michigan state Rep. Lisa Brown, D-West Bloomfield, and Katie Oppenheim, a registered nurse and member of the Michigan Nurses Association, join “Viewpoint” host Eliot Spitzer to react to news that the Michigan state legislature has passed a series of bills that would restrict women’s reproductive rights, including access to abortion. If the bills pass the Michigan House, their fate will be determined by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, who recently signed controversial right-to-work legislation into law.
“We have legislators who are going against the will of the people, and we have a governor who said he did not want to deal with divisive issues — jobs was job No. 1 — and he completely flip-flopped on that,” Brown says.
“Everything that’s happened in the last 24 hours — and really, it’s an awful lot that’s happened — is going to be detrimental to women, and especially poor, minority women. What this does for us as nurses is, it says that we really won’t be able to do our job the way that we know we should,” Oppenheim says. “This is a bunch of middle-aged, white men making decisions for women.”
