A liberal elected official in Michigan claims she has sterilized herself in order to avoid a pregnancy under what she believes will be Donald Trump’s crackdown on abortion.
Laurie Pohutsky, 36, has represented the 19th District in the Michigan House of Representatives since 2019.
Michigan significantly changed its abortion laws in response to the 2022 repeal of Roe vs. Wade.
In In November 2022, the state passed a citizen-led ballot initiative that enshrined the right to abortion in the state’s constitution.
However, speaking to hundreds of protestors at the state capitol in Grand Rapids, Pohutsky expressed no confidence that those laws would remain in place under a Trump second term.
‘Just under two weeks ago, I underwent surgery to ensure that I would never have to navigate a pregnancy in Donald Trump’s America,’ Pohutsky said, according to Michigan Advance.
‘I refuse to let my body be treated as currency by an administration that only sees value in my ability to procreate.’
She spoke out in response to the backlash against the procedure on social media later Thursday.
A liberal elected official in Michigan claims she has sterilized herself in order to avoid a pregnancy under what she believes will be Donald Trump ‘s crackdown on abortion laws
Laurie Pohutsky, 36, has represented the 19th District in the Michigan House of Representatives since 2019
Pohutsky wrote: ‘Oh my… it would seem that many men with profile photos of other people have read the news and are not very happy with me today. So anyway, who else is excited for the new Lady Gaga album?’
‘The fact that so many conservative men take personal offense to a decision that I made with my husband about my health care and future just proves the point that we shouldn’t assume that right is secure,’ she added.
Trump has a somewhat complex relationship to the abortion issue.
Abortion has been a leading issue with women voters since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade. Trump appointed three of the justices who made the landmark reversal decision.
Trump has said the issue has torn the country apart for more than 50 years and that no one wanted it determined by the federal government rather than individual states, as it was in the previous landmark abortion decision, Roe v. Wade.
‘I’ve taken this issue out of the federal government and put it back to the states where they’re voting,’ the Republican presidential nominee added.
He repeated that he believes in abortion exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother. But not all states that have banned abortion since Roe v. Wade was overturned have such exceptions.
Trump praised the ‘very brave judges’ who overturned the law and said the country is now ‘getting to vote’ on the issue.
He signed pardons last week freeing nearly a dozen pro-life protesters who were prosecuted by former president Joe Biden’s administration.
The protesters were prosecuted and sent to jail for singing songs, praying, and locking arms to block access to clinics providing abortions, as they urged women not to get abortions.
The president’s pardons were signed by Trump just hours before pro-life activists gather in Washington, DC for their annual March for Life.
Biden’s Justice Department prosecuted the activists under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, a bill passed in 1994 in response to ongoing Christian protests at abortion clinics.
Pro-life activists criticized the Biden administration for prosecuting non-violent protesters and sending them to prison for lengthy sentences.
During a signing ceremony in the Oval Office, Trump said that he had pardoned 23 activists who had been prosecuted.
‘They should not have been prosecuted, many of them are elderly people, they should not have been prosecuted,’ he said. ‘This is a great honor to sign this.’
Trump’s staff informed him that some of them were in prison and some of them had already been released on supervision.
