Gubernatorial hopeful Abdul El-Sayed says an oil pipeline that moves crude though the Straits of Mackinac poses a major threat to the Great Lakes. In Kalamazoo on Tuesday the candidate said that if he were elected governor, he’d use executive power to turn the pipe off while its safety is debated.
“Beyond that, we shouldn’t be putting our money in infrastructure that empowers a system of energy production that ultimately boils stuff into the air, that we then have to breathe that gives our kids asthma and ruins our climate,” he added.
El-Sayed, a physician and former City of Detroit health commissioner, is one of four Democrats who have so far declared their candidacies for governor. He spoke to the Kalamazoo progressive group ProKzoo at First Congregational Church before heading to Western Michigan University’s campus for an event with students.
El-Sayed took questions on issues from gerrymandering – he supports creating an independent redistricting commission – to abortion, where he said he is “deeply pro-choice.”
“When I was in medical school, I had the opportunity during my obstetrics and gynecology rotation to sit with a young woman who was making a decision about having an abortion,” he said. “And it was in a Planned Parenthood clinic. And I will never forget the thoughts and energy and the frustration that went into her decision.
“That is not an easy decision. Nobody who makes that decision makes it lightly. It would be absurd to assume that somehow the state can make a better decision than a woman can about her own body,” he said.
El-Sayed also told the group that he supports amending the state’s constitution so it protects the civil rights of LGBTQ residents. He said those individuals would have representation in his cabinet.
On health care, El-Sayed says he favors a single-payer insurance system. He says state-level action could prompt the federal government to move in the same direction, and that Canada’s national health program started with a push among the provinces.
El-Sayed says no-fault auto insurance reflects the faults of the US health care system. As a former Detroit resident, he says he knows the burden that high-cost insurance places on drivers. El-Sayed says the state should make sure that no one’s profiteering from no-fault.
“More importantly though, I think this issue reminds us just how important health insurance really is and that meaningful health reform would allow us to stop treating auto insurance like health insurance and treat it like car insurance as it was meant to be,” he said.
