CASE STUDIES .

The Early Going

We knew Michigan would be one of the earliest battlegrounds once Roe vs Wade had been overturned. It had an old 1931 law on the books banning abortion — a law that could have come back into force had we not passed an initiative. Anti-abortion forces would amass over $20 million to fight us.

The Strategy

Early focus groups highlighted the importance of defining the measure before opponents had a chance to define it themselves. The Supreme Court had overturned Roe and there is a law on the books banning most abortion in Michigan, but abortion hadn’t been banned.  Voters could get an abortion in Michigan if they wanted one – so they questioned why this was needed and had suspicions they were being tricked into weakening abortion rights.  For confused voters, the safest things were to vote no and protect a status quo in which abortion was accessible in Michigan.  Opponents attempted to seize on this confusion, arguing that this initiative was confusing, misleading, and extreme. Their path to victory relied on raising enough questions about the initiative in voters’ minds that enough voters who believe abortion should be mostly legal decided to vote no.

Consequently, we had to give voters a reason to vote yes, and had to define the initiative in voters’ minds before opponents were able to raise questions and concerns about it. By illuminating the existing abortion ban on the books and emphasizing how Prop 3 restored the Roe rights they’d had for over 50 years, our research identified a message that made a yes vote a protection of the status quo. And we extensively tested execution using experimental design ad testing, ensuring our message was getting through with the right combination of message, messenger, and validator.

The research also identified the importance of staying on message. Opponents threw a lot of misleading information out there – including multiple ads that falsely claimed that the initiative would allow teens to get gender changing therapies without their parents’ consent.  Had we tried to directly refute those items, all our testing showed, we’d amplify their message rather than refute it.  Instead, we remained laser-focused on our core message, clearly and consistently explaining in clear, simple language what Prop 3 did and the stakes as risk.  This had the effect of combating opponents’ ads and blocking the doubts and confusion they attempted to sow by reassuring voters that Prop 3 was about restoring Roe rights and protecting abortion.

Results

Ultimately, Prop 3 won 57% to 43% — a resounding victory in a pro-choice state. The victory included support not just from 93% of Democrats, but also 55% among independents and 14% among Republicans, according to exit polling.

We passed the first affirmative, pro-reproductive rights ballot initiative in the nation to override a state abortion ban, protecting access in the Michigan constitution to reproductive health care like birth control, prenatal care, and childbirth, ensures access to reproductive health care no matter your race, gender, age, or background, and guaranteeing that a near total abortion ban on the books from 1931 cannot be enforced.