Bonsitu Kitaba was among the many new American citizens to cast her first-ever vote in the 2022 midterm elections.

That first vote held extra significance: A constitutional amendment she had co-written was on the ballot. 

The Reproductive Freedom for All amendment, or Proposal 3, passed by a margin of 13 points and enshrined the right to abortion access and broader reproductive freedoms into Michigan’s state constitution.

“I think that’s an ultimate career highlight,” Kitaba, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan, told The 19th in 2022. “I don’t think I could top that again.”

Kitaba grew up in Canada, the daughter of a Guyanese mother and an Ethiopian father. She said being the daughter of two immigrants pushed her toward a career in civil rights law. Her father continued to advocate for the freedom of those in his home country after coming to Canada as a refugee.

She attended Wayne State Law School in Michigan and made a home in Detroit and a career in civil rights law that included co-authoring Michigan’s reproductive rights constitutional amendment. 

Kitaba said it was “surreal” to receive her absentee ballot, turn it over,  see the 100-word summary of the constitutional amendment she had helped write and realize her vote would be one of the ones to pass it. “Something in the universe made that happen,” she said.

“I was really focused on getting this constitutional amendment qualified for the ballot, collecting enough signatures, overcoming all of the hurdles to get there,” she added. “And I don’t think it really sunk in until a couple days after election night, after we won, that this is actually real.”