Abortion rights opponents attend a rally outside the state Capitol in Lansing, Mich., on June 24, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Roe v. Wade case.
Paul Sancya / AP
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Paul Sancya / AP
Abortion rights opponents attend a rally outside the state Capitol in Lansing, Mich., on June 24, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Roe v. Wade case.
Paul Sancya / AP
DETROIT – A judge on Wednesday defeated Michigan’s The anti-abortion law of 1931months after suspending it, the latest development on abortion rights in a state where the issue is being debated in courtrooms and, possibly, at the ballot box.
Law, long inactive before the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe v. Wade in June, violating the Michigan Constitution, said Judge Elizabeth Gleicher.
“The law to deny common, safe medical care not only denies women the ability to control their bodies and their lives – it also denies their dignity,” Gleicher of the Court requested to write. “The Michigan Constitution prohibits this violation of due process.”
The decision comes as the Michigan Supreme Court is considering whether to recommend the amendment on the November 8 ballot that would add abortion rights to the state constitution. Friday’s deadline is approaching.
Backers sent over 700,000 signatures, easily crossing the threshold. But a binding vote by the State Council of Canvassers on gap issues on the petition has kept it from being voted on so far.
In the case handled by Gleicher, the 1931 law made it a crime to have an abortion unless the mother’s life was in danger.
The judge found the law “mandates motherhood” and prevents a woman from defining “the shape of her present and future life.”
The law “forces a pregnant woman to give up her reproductive options and instead act as an involuntary vessel that is more disrespectful than other forms of collectively owned property,” Gleicher said. wrote, quoting constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe.
She suspended the law in May with an order. Her latest decision applies to all state and local prosecutors in Michigan. The Republican-controlled House and Senate can appeal the ruling, brought in a lawsuit from Planned Parenthood.
Gleicher admitted in July that she was a regular donor to the organization and had given $1,000 to the campaigns of Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel, both pro-abortion Democrats. . But that support is not a reason to refer the case to another judge, said Gleicher, who is also chief justice of the Michigan Court of Appeals.
In a separate case, Whitmer has repeatedly asked the state Supreme Court to bypass the lower courts and resolve the status of the 1931 statute. The court has yet to decide whether to intervene.
