After Being Shot, Elderly Pro-Life Woman Keeps Speaking for Unborn

LAKE ODESSA, Michigan—Joan Jacobson literally took a bullet for the pro-life cause in September.  

Jacobson, 83, is a retired nurse who lives in Lake Odessa, Michigan, 40 miles east of Grand Rapids. A volunteer with Right to Life, during election season she began knocking on doors in her community to educate voters on an abortion-related constitutional amendment on the ballot.  

Proposal 3, which voters appear to have approved Tuesday, will add a “right” to abortion to the Michigan Constitution.

Early returns indicating the amendment would be defeated proved to be misleading. By 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, with 3.7 million votes or 78% of the total counted, “yes” on Proposal 3 was ahead of “no” by 55.6% to 44.4%, The New York Times reported.

Jacobson told The Daily Signal that she believes in the “sanctity of life,” a conviction that compelled her to do all she could to prevent Proposal 3 from becoming the law of the land in Michigan.  

“If you can tell a mother that she can kill her unborn child, how can you tell anybody else not to kill somebody?” Jacobson said, adding that abortion destroys love and peace. 

In September, Jacobson was canvasing alone in her community in opposition to the pro-abortion amendment.  

She got into a bit of an argument with a woman whose door she knocked on. They were discussing Proposal 3 and things got a little heated.  

The woman’s husband, identified as Richard Harvey, 74, heard the two women arguing and approached with a gun in hand. Police said Harvey used the gun to shove aside Jacobson’s clipboard and it fired, a shot, hitting Jacobson in the shoulder.   

Jacobson was able to drive herself to the Lake Odessa Police Department before she was taken to a hospital for treatment. Harvey, who is cooperating with authorities, said the incident was a mistake.  

As for Jacobson, she says she is doing well apart from some shoulder pain. In fact, she is doing so well that she spent Election Day at her local polling place to talk to voters about Proposal 3.  

Sitting by a large sign saying that Proposal 3 is “dangerous to children, parents, and women,” Jacobson said she wanted to keep educating voters on the pro-abortion amendment. 

“I decided to be here … in case there was somebody that was kind of like on the fence, wasn’t really sure,” she said. “I could say this is what it’s going to do, and perhaps lead them to vote against it.”

As Jacobson spoke with The Daily Signal, several voters stopped by to greet her; others shouted, “I voted no,” as they drove out of the parking lot.  

But not everyone was friendly.  

“You should not be here,” a woman yelled at Jacobson from her car.  

“We have every right to be here,” Jacobson responded.  

“Right, but you shouldn’t be,” the woman said.  

“Well, who says that?” Jacobson asked. 

“Because people should vote their own mind and not be influenced,” the woman said, before again telling Jacobson, “You should not be here.”  

Jacobson stayed. Wrapped in her scarf and sitting in her folding chair beside her pro-life sign, she continued to talk to any voters interested in hearing why she is so opposed to Proposal 3 and so supportive of the unborn.  

This report was updated to include more recent results.

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