(WXYZ) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is asking the state supreme court to make an immediate ruling on the state's 1931 abortion ban after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Michigan does have a 1931 law that not only bans abortion but criminalizes it, with the person being charged with either a felony or a misdemeanor.
Related: Michigan leaders, organizations react after Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade
"Any person who shall wilfully administer to any pregnant woman any medicine, drug, substance or thing whatever, or shall employ any instrument or other means whatever, with intent thereby to procure the miscarriage of any such woman, unless the same shall have been necessary to preserve the life of such woman, shall be guilty of a felony, and in case the death of such pregnant woman be thereby produced, the offense shall be deemed manslaughter," Michigan's law reads.
Whitmer has filed a lawsuit in the state saying the law is unconstitutional. But, in May, a Michigan Court of Claims judge issued an injunction that temporarily blocked the enforcement of the state's 1931 abortion ban.
“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,” Whitmer said in a statement.
A citizen-led effort to add abortion access into the state’s constitution is continuing. The group needs a little more than 425,000 signatures by July 11 to get this issue on the ballot in November, for voters to decide.
