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David Remnick: The impact of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision is shaking the balance of power in the United States. This summer, when Kansas voters rallied behind reproductive choice in a referendum, they sent a resounding signal of political defiance. Our writer, Peter Slevin, after covering the Kansas referendum, shifted his reporting to the state of Michigan where there's an initiative on the ballot that would put the right to abortion in the state constitution. That's shaping this November's race for governor and control of the US Congress. Here's Peter Slevin.

Peter Slevin: As I was trying to decide where to go in Michigan to focus on the battle over reproductive rights, the third district in western Michigan centered in Grand Rapids really caught my eye. It's a district that has long been held by Republicans. This year, Hillary Scholten, a Democrat who lost a race for Congress two years ago to a Republican, got back into the race. One thing has changed since Scholten lost two years ago. An independent election commission has redistricted. In recent years, voters have elected conservative Republicans. This year, Scholten is given a real shot.

Speaker 3: Hello everyone. Thanks so much for coming out on this Thursday afternoon.

Peter Slevin: On one warm September afternoon, Scholten's advanced team set up shop outside of a brew pub in the backyard. She took the microphone and talked about what was at stake.

Hillary Scholten: I'm running because choice is on the ballot. Regardless of what happens with this ballot initiative, it doesn't stop here, right? The extremists in Congress have already shown that they want to take away access to contraceptives.

Peter Slevin: It was a weekday afternoon and several dozen people showed up, both to listen and to move on out as her organizing force.

Hillary Scholten: For years, we have been held hostage by Republican gerrymandering, but the good people of Michigan have been fighting back. Thanks to our incredible efforts by voters, not politicians, we have a once-in-a-generation election this cycle and the opportunity of a lifetime to elect majorities up and down the ballot. When it comes to Michigan's third Congressional to send the first democratic woman in West Michigan history to Congress, I'm ready.

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Peter Slevin: Scholten is running against a man named John Gibbs, a Republican who moved into the district to compete in this race. I reached out to the Gibbs campaign, hoping that he might talk with me. He declined, as did the Michigan Republican Party. He was strongly backed by former President Donald Trump, and this is what he tweeted on the morning of the Dobbs decision, "God wins." I wanted to see how other candidates were talking about abortion. I drove across the state the next day to see Gretchen Whitmer.

Gretchen Whitmer: Appreciate you making time. It's such a precarious moment--

Peter Slevin: She gathered a group of women around a table at a Cajun restaurant. Whitmer, herself, started by telling her own story.

Gretchen Whitmer: Obviously, I'm here as the governor. I'm also here as a woman. I'm here as a mother. I'm also here as a survivor. When I was in college, like one out of four women, I was raped. In the days in the aftermath, I was just, it was devastating. It didn't hit me right away, but maybe hours or a day into it, I thought, "Oh my God, what if I'm pregnant?" I knew that if that were the case, that I would have the ability to make my own choice for what was right for me.

Peter Slevin: One of Whitmer's guests, a physician's assistant named Nikki, says she sees a startling number of young women who are asking for birth control.

Nikki: They're terrified. I have women who aren't sexually active asking to go on birth control because of this. I've had so many patients that are choosing IUDs right now. Intrauterine devices that are long term devices that can be there between three and 10 years. They're choosing that because they don't know where the future of this conversation is going.

Peter Slevin: For 45 minutes, it was story after story of women who were worried about what it would mean to lose access to abortion. There were military veterans, there were women who work in healthcare. There was one mother who was there with her daughter, and Whitmer was listening and talking about how essential it is. She called it a precarious moment for the country.

Gretchen Whitmer: It's such a precarious moment and this is such a--

Peter Slevin: After the round table, I was able to catch up with the governor for a few minutes.

Gretchen Whitmer: I think it would be a real mistake to assume everyone understands how dire and serious this moment is. That's why I think it's crucial that we are communicating and doing round tables and continuing to put the focus on this, because it's very real and it's very raw. In Michigan, if we're not successful, you have to go international to get access to abortion care by going to Canada or get all the way to Illinois, which will mean a lot of women will not have access and lives will be lost. We can't stop educating.

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Peter Slevin: What are the anti-abortion forces saying about all of this? I checked in with Michigan Right to Life, which is based, as it happens, in Grand Rapids, in Scholten's district, and asked Chris Gast, who's the Education Coordinator, how they see November and what the Dobbs case has meant to their efforts?

Chris Gast: The message for candidates is, "Look, most of the American public is in the middle on abortion, very confused. They're not sure what they believe. You need to say that you have a consistent position on the value of unborn life. You need to ask them, now that we have Roe versus Wade gone, the status quo has been abortion through all nine months of pregnancy for any reason, which is what your opponent in most cases would be supportive of. Everything from partial birth abortion, tax-funded abortions, no parental consent for abortions. By all means, have a frank conversation about what are people's opinion on abortions.

Peter Slevin: We've certainly read stories. There's one example in Michigan, but there are others elsewhere where Republican candidates who are broadly opposed to abortion are downplaying it because they don't want to get into the debate about whether it should be a full ban or not.

Chris Gast: It's common that sometimes in elections, and it's always been the case that you have to tie to try to get pro-life candidates to really talk about the issue. That's nothing new. I don't think we've seen a real mass movement away from that. I think certainly they need to think harder about how they need to talk about it now that it's going to be an issue that people are going to be directly voting on, and they're going to be voting on it in a very meaningful way.

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Peter Slevin: Later that afternoon, I went door knocking with Hillary Scholten to see what reception she's been getting from voters. She's the Democrat running for Congress in the district anchored in Grand Rapids. On one busy street, she came across a man sitting on his front porch. He introduced himself as John, and right off the bat he said he had seen Scholten's ad but he frankly wasn't sure which way he was going to vote.

Hillary Scholten: Okay, you have? All right. Are you planning to vote in November?

John: I don't know. [unintelligible 00:08:15] .

Hillary Scholten: What are some of the issues that matter to you? Some things that really--?

John: The abortion, this is wrong.

Hillary Scholten: Yes?

Peter Slevin: Lo and behold, the first thing he mentioned was abortion.

Hillary Scholten: What is it about abortion that you feel strong--?

John: It should be a woman's freedom to do that themselves. Make the choice themselves.

Hillary Scholten: Make them-- yes, that's what I believe, too. I'm a Christian. I am a mom myself, and I think that it's up to every woman's God-given ability to make that decision for themselves.

Peter Slevin: They had a lengthy back-and-forth as cars were going by on this busy street. At the end, Scholten said, "Can I count on your vote?"

Hillary Scholten: What do you think? Can I count on your vote in November?

John: Yes, [unintelligible 00:08:59] .

Hillary Scholten: Absolutely. Thank you so much.

John: Thank you, sure can.

Hillary Scholten: All right. [laughs]

John: Thank you, sure can.

Peter Slevin: The other day, you were nice enough to let me tag along as you knocked on doors. It was an upscale neighborhood. It was a neighborhood where Gerald Ford, the former president, had once lived. I was struck by this couple who answered the door when you knocked, who said, "We actually used to be Republicans. We are no longer Republicans." Did that stand out to you?

Hillary Scholten: Yes, I mean, honestly, not really, because I hear it all the time. I would say, it's one of the dominant narratives that we hear here. People have-- either they used to be Republicans five years ago, 10 years ago. We're talking to people who used to be Republicans two weeks ago. They say the choice on the other side is just not for us. We want to support you because you're the right candidate for our district.

Peter Slevin: What was striking to me was how often Scholten spoke of abortion in terms of her own religion. This is an issue that Republicans, especially and particularly evangelical Christians on the right, have made their own. How does your faith connect with your views on reproductive rights on abortion?

Hillary Scholten: Yes. Well, I feel called to love my neighbor as myself. That includes loving and caring for women, and trusting them to make their own reproductive choices for themselves. That is not a role for the government. I also deeply believe that my particular views on this and what I would choose for myself, it's not appropriate to make laws that reflect one particular view on abortion.

Peter Slevin: If Scholten wins, and she is leading in the polls, it's going to be pretty darn meaningful. It means that the political equation surrounding reproductive rights, and specifically abortion, has changed and changed dramatically since June when the Supreme Court issued its Dobbs decision. It will mean that voters who believe in abortion rights are turning out and are making their voices felt in a way that we simply haven't seen in many, many years.

David Remnick: Peter Slevin is based in Chicago. John Gibbs, the Republican running against Hillary Scholten in Michigan, declined to be interviewed, but in a statement he called Scholten's position on abortion 'extremist'.

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