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Confusion is growing about the status of abortions in Michigan.
Yesterday, Attorney General Dana Nessel reiterated that abortions remain legal under the terms that existed before the U.S. Supreme Court upended Roe v Wade.
Nessel based her statement on a temporary restraining order issued by the Michigan Court of Claims, preventing the state’s existing 1931 abortion law from taking immediate effect.
Nessel and a group of county prosecutors say they’ll refuse to enforce the law if it is reinstated.
Some county prosecutors, however, are threatening to defy the judicial order, and begin criminal prosecutions immediately. They maintain the order affects only state officials, and does not apply to local officials.
In the face of those threats, the state’s largest health care provider, Beaumont Health Spectrum Health, has announced it will discontinue abortions, except when the mother’s life is at risk. Beaumont-Spectrum maintains hospitals and clinics in metro Detroit and Grand Rapids.
The Marquette Planned Parenthood Clinic posted this statement on its website: “Abortion is legal and is still your right in Michigan. We are here with the care you need.”
With confusion mounting, Governor Gretchen Whitmer yesterday reiterated her call for an immediate ruling from the Michigan Supreme Court as to whether the 1931 law conforms with the state constitution.
Of the seven justices on Michigan’s high court, four are Democrats, and three are Republicans.
