Michigan Supreme Court Justice Kyra Bolden fights for abortion rights, supporters say

Michigan Supreme Court Justice Kyra Harris Bolden is running for reelection this November. Her supporters say the former state representative, who made history as the first Black woman and the youngest person to serve as an associate justice on the high court, is the perfect person for the job because of her unwavering support for abortion rights.

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer appointed Bolden, who was then 34, to the Supreme Court in 2022 after former Chief Justice Bridget McCormack retired. The court is currently made up of four Democrats and three Republicans.

Justice David Viviano, a Republican, announced his retirement in March, meaning that both his and McCormack’s seats are open ahead of the Nov. 5 election. The Nov. 5 elections could either lead to an expanded 5-2 Democratic majority or flip the court to a 4-3 Republican majority. Seven candidates, including Bolden, are running.

Bolden served in the state House of Representatives from 2019 to 2023, representing the 35th House District. In 2019, Bolden opposed House Bill 4320, which would have made it a felony for medical providers to perform what is misleadingly called a “partial-term abortion,” a nonmedical term used by anti-abortion groups to describe a method procedure of abortion called dilation and extraction (D&E)  which is used later in pregnancy, according to the American College of Gynecologists and Obstetricians. The 2019 bill never made it out of the House, and since Whitmer signed the state’s Reproductive Health Act in 2023, it would no longer comply with the state Constitution. 

During a virtual forum in 2021  organized by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan, Bolden said, “I think I might hold the record of name-checking Planned Parenthood on the House floor and maybe talking about my uterus more than any other legislator currently serving.” 

Bolden has received support from the reproductive rights organizations  Vote Mama PAC, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan, Reproductive Freedom for All, the Michigan Nurses Association, and EMILYs List.

“As the first Black woman to sit on the Michigan state Supreme Court, Justice Bolden’s historic service has been exemplified by a commitment to fairly interpreting the law and protecting the rights of Michiganders,” EMILYs List President Jessica Mackler said in a press release endorsing Bolden’s reelection. “At a time when courts in more than half of the country are seeing cases related to abortion rights, ensuring a strong pro-choice majority on the state’s Supreme Court is critical to safeguard abortion access for years to come.” 

Kristy Pagan, the political director of the group Vote Mama PAC, which supports Democratic women with children who run for political office, served with Bolden in the Michigan House of Representatives.

“Kyra Harris Bolden and I both served on the Progressive Women’s Caucus together, which was a caucus of progressive women legislators. Our core value was enacting pro-choice legislation,” Pagan told the Michigan Independent. “We were there on the front lines when there was a conservative Legislature, when Republicans were in the majority, when Gov. Rick Snyder, our Republican governor, was there. And so we were leading the fight then to say it is not OK to restrict personal freedom and it’s not OK to put these limitations on reproductive health care.”

Pagan said that Bolden’s perspective is vitally needed on the high court. 

“She’s the only person serving in the Michigan Supreme Court with school-aged children,” Pagan said. “She’s the youngest Supreme Court justice we’ve ever had in Michigan, to have that youthful perspective, that not only her lived experience but thinking about the future and the future of her daughter in the next generation, her whole platform is Justice for Generations.”