Republicans know that their anti-choice extremism is a losing issue — so they’ve adopted a new strategy to get their way: blocking citizen-led ballot initiatives that would protect women’s reproductive rights.

That’s right: Republicans want to block Americans from expressing their will so they can ram through draconian abortion bans in states across the country.

Associated Press: “GOP escalates fight against citizen-led ballot initiatives”

In Michigan, more than 730,000 citizens worked together to put an initiative on the November ballot that would enshrine a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body. Yet two GOP members of the Michigan Board of State Canvassers rejected the ballot measure because of “spacing problems.”

Associated Press: “In Michigan this past week, two Republican members of the bipartisan Board of State Canvassers blocked [an initiative] to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution… GOP board members said… the abortion measure was flawed because of spacing problems that scrunched some words together.”

Let’s be perfectly clear: Michigan Republicans are blocking a citizen-led effort to protect abortion rights because they know that their extreme, anti-choice views are wildly out of step with voters. 

Associated Press: “The Republican pushback against the initiative process is part of a several-year trend that gained steam as Democratic-aligned groups have increasingly used petitions to force public votes on issues that Republican-led legislatures have opposed.”

But make no mistake: In a democracy, the voters decide — and Republicans will be held accountable for their extreme agenda one way or another.