The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that will allow the state’s 83 county prosecutors to begin enforcing the 1931 ban on abortions.
The order was issued Monday. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said that Democrat prosecuting attorneys have already committed to refusing to enforce the ban and the injunction still applies to the attorney general’s office.
The United States Supreme Court voted to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that made abortion legal nationwide. The ruling came down on June 24. For nearly 50 years, the right to have an abortion without excessive government restrictions was protected.
Michigan’s 1931 abortion ban states that all abortions are felonious and cannot be carried out unless necessary to “preserve” the mother’s life. There are no exceptions for rape or incest.
In May, a Michigan Court of Claims judge granted a motion filed by Planned Parenthood and the ACLU that prevented Michigan’s attorney general from enforcing the 1931 ban. Nessel has repeatedly said she will not enforce the ban, even if it’s re-enacted by the courts.
Michigan Judge Elizabeth Gleicher sided with the two groups and granted the motion preventing “all local officials acting under (their) supervision,” from enforcing Michigan’s 1931 law.
“Pregnancy and childbirth, particularly if unwanted, transform a woman’s psychological well-being in addition to her body,” Gleicher’s opinion reads. “As recognized in People v. Nixon half a century ago, legal abortion is actually safer than childbirth. Thus, the link between the right to bodily integrity and the decision whether to bear a child is an obvious one.
