by J.P. Isbell
During Democrat Whitmer’s recent “What’s Next” speech, she outlined an agenda for Michigan that included what Barbara Listing, Right to Life (RTL) of Michigan president, called “anti-life fall policy priorities.”
In her speech on August 30th, Gov. Whitmer talked about wanting to pass the RHA or “Reproductive Health Act.” Just seven days later, the RHA 11-bill package was introduced by Democratic lawmakers, spearheaded by Michigan House Rep. Lauri Pohutsky (D-Livonia) and Sen. Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing). Pohutsky said in a statement about the legislation, “The implementation of these bills is urgent to ensure medical avenues are open to access safe, legal abortion across Michigan.”
But not everyone agrees. RTL says that the legislation threatens to remove longstanding protections for both women and children. In a press release about the legislation, RTL says, “The ‘Reproductive Health Act’ includes removing the following: Abortion clinic licensing regulations, informed consent provisions which include a 24-hour waiting period, the Medicaid funding ban, partial-birth abortion law, born alive infant protection law, humane disposal of fetal remains, abortion reporting, and more. It also redefines ‘abortion’ in state law as a medical treatment and removes the term ‘elective.’”
RTL also says that the new legislation “codifies into state statute the language of Proposal 3 creating a statutory right to abortion (in addition to the constitutional right) and allows for civil penalties for entities who infringe on those rights.”
Proposal 3, the constitutional amendment for “Reproductive Freedom for All”, includes allowing the state to regulate abortion post-fetal viability but Pohutsky said at a roundtable event on Wednesday that placing restrictions according to which stage of a pregnancy abortions can be performed is “not currently part of the conversation.”
In the state’s 1963 constitution, it says, “’Fetal viability’ means: the point in pregnancy when, in the professional judgment of an attending health care professional and based on the particular facts of the case, there is a significant likelihood of the fetus’s sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.”
Recently introduced House Bill No. 4949 defines fetal viability as the definition used in the state constitution but also goes on to say, “Notwithstanding the above, the state may regulate the provision of abortion care after fetal viability, provided that in no circumstance shall the state prohibit an abortion that, in professional judgment of an attending health care professional is medically indicated to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant individual.”
Michigan News Source reached out to RTL Legislative Director Genevieve Marnon to ask about post-viable abortions in Michigan and she said, “The Michigan law (MCL 750.14) which protected unborn babies from abortion was put in place in 1846 and remained continuously in place and enforceable until it was repealed by the current Michigan Legislature in March of this year with PA 11. The law was construed by the Michigan Supreme Court in 1973 (after Roe vs. Wade) in People vs. Bricker to remain in effect and prevent post-viable abortions in the state of Michigan despite the federal constitutional right to abortion found in Roe.”
Marnon went on to say, “So, for the past 50 years, Michigan’s law prevented post-viable abortions even under Roe. (The accepted standards of viability under Roe was 24 weeks gestation which means abortions after 24 weeks were not allowed in Michigan unless there was a health indication as determined by Doe vs. Bolton). The new Constitutional Amendment under Proposal 3 of 2022 aka the Reproductive Freedom for All initiative, allows the legislature to regulate abortion after viability; however, to date, the legislature has not passed any bills to regulate post-viable abortions, and with the repeal of MCL 750.14, the absence of laws restricting abortions after viability, will now allow abortions to the moment of birth.”
Besides allowing abortions up to the moment of birth, the recently introduced abortion legislation has things in it that go against the will Michiganders. Although Proposal 3 passed by voters in November with 56.66% of the vote, a poll commissioned by the Michigan Catholic Conference (MCC) shows that those same voters also support the 24-hour waiting period (63%), parental consent (67%) and health and safety standards (90%).
Rebecca Mastee, J.D., policy advocate for MCC had said at the time the poll was released, “Lawmakers must decide if they stand with a majority of voters who support reasonable guardrails such as parental rights, informed consent, and health and sanitation standards for abortion facilities. Even pro-choice voters and those who supported Proposal 3 last November have made clear that legislative protections for parents, women and children should remain in place.”
Getting rid of parental consent for minors under the age of 18, which has been in prior versions of RHA legislation, will not be part of the new legislation – at least for now. That is most likely because Whitmer wants to keep it. In a 2022 interview with the Detroit News, she had said that parental consent “is a part of the law that we have on the books” and added “I would be interested in preserving it.” Pohutsky said about leaving it out of the legislation, “The goal is to do as much of this work as we possibly can and we didn’t want to do anything that would have prohibited the rest of the package from getting through at this point in time.”
According to Bridge Michigan, opponents of the RHA legislation argue that relaxed regulations on abortion clinics would endanger the health of abortion patients in the state. Legislative Director of RTL, Genevieve Marnon said, “This proposed legislation will strip basic health and safety protections for women, and it demonstrates the blind fervor with which Planned Parenthood is seeking to expand.”
Barbara Listing, President, Right to Life of Michigan, said in a press release about the new legislation, “Governor Whitmer is wildly out of step with Michiganders as she works to push through the most extreme anti-life agenda this state has ever seen. The Governor is using Proposal 3 as a Trojan horse to remove common-sense provisions meant to protect women and children seeking or undergoing an abortion…This blatant affront to women’s health and safety could have only one goal – expand the abortion industry’s bottom line.”
Supporters of the 11-bill legislation includes Planned Parenthood, the Committee to Protect Health Care and the ACLU of Michigan who said in a statement that the bills would “repeal many medically unnecessary state laws that create barriers to abortion.”
14 states have banned abortion but Michigan’s Democratic governor and the Democratic legislators in control of the state, are working to get rid of as many abortion restrictions as they can – restrictions they call “dangerous and unnecessary” that are restricting what they call “abortion care.”
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Jen Isbell has spent nearly 20 years as a journalist. She is a Michigan News Source daily contributor who prefers pets over people because they cause fewer problems.
Photo “Gretchen Whitmer” by Gretchen Whitmer.
