LANSING – Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer filed a motion urging the state’s Supreme Court to consider her lawsuit challenging the 1931 abortion law following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court has voted to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that made abortion legal nationwide, relinquishing control of abortion regulation to individual state governments.
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Michigan’s 1931 abortion ban, which is an updated version of a law that dates back to the 1840s, states that all abortions are felonious and cannot be carried out unless necessary to “preserve” the life of the mother. The law has no exceptions for rape or incest.
In anticipation of Roe being overturned, Planned Parenthood of Michigan and the American Civil Liberties Union together filed a lawsuit in April seeking an immediate court order restraining Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel from “enforcing the unconstitutional ban against abortion providers.” The lawsuit argues that Michigan’s 1931 abortion ban “violates the rights to liberty, bodily integrity, equal protection, and privacy under the Michigan Constitution and state civil rights laws, and that the law is unconstitutionally vague.”
A Michigan Court of Claims judge in May ruled in favor of PP and the ACLU, granting the groups’ motion and preventing the acting state attorney general -- and “all local officials acting under (their) supervision” -- from enforcing Michigan’s abortion ban if Roe is overturned.
So, as of Friday, June 24, Michigan’s 1931 law banning abortions is temporarily blocked and cannot be enforced. Abortion remains legal and available to individuals statewide.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in April filed a lawsuit claiming that the 1931 law is unconstitutional. She has requested that the case go directly to the state supreme court and that they overturn the 1931 law entirely, but the state’s high court has not yet said whether they will hear the case.
On Friday, following the SCOTUS ruling, Whitmer filed a motion urging the court to immediately consider her lawsuit.
“Today, I filed a motion urging the court to immediately take up my lawsuit to protect abortion in Michigan. We need to clarify that under Michigan law, access to abortion is not only legal, but constitutionally protected. The urgency of the moment is clear—the Michigan court must act now,” said Governor Gretchen Whitmer. “With today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision, Michigan’s extreme 1931 law banning abortion without exceptions for rape or incest and criminalizing doctors and nurses who provide reproductive care is poised to take effect. If the 1931 law goes into effect, it will punish women and strip away their right to make decisions about their own bodies. That is why I filed a lawsuit in April and used my executive authority to urge the Michigan Supreme Court to immediately resolve whether Michigan’s state constitution protects the right to abortion. I will fight like hell to protect the rights of Michigan women.”
More: Supreme Court overturns Roe v Wade: What that means for abortion access in Michigan
