LANSING, Mich. –
A Michigan judge on Friday blocked county prosecutors from enforcing the state’s 1931 abortion ban for the foreseeable future after two days of testimony from abortion experts, providers and the state’s chief medical officer.
The ruling comes after the state Court of Appeals said earlier this month that county prosecutors were not covered by a May order and could enforce the ban after the fall of Roe v. Wade for the US Supreme Court.
“The harm to the bodies of women and persons capable of becoming pregnant by not issuing the warrant could not be more real, clear, present and dangerous to the court,” Oakland County Judge Jacob Cunningham said during his remarks. failed on Friday.
David Kallman, an attorney representing two Republican county prosecutors, said an appeal is planned.
Cunningham had filed a restraining order against county prosecutors hours after the appeals court’s Aug. 1 decision and following a request from attorneys representing Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
While most prosecutors in counties where there are abortion clinics have said they won’t enforce the ban, Republican prosecutors in Kent, Jackson and Macomb counties have said they should be able to enforce the 1931 law.
Cunningham heard arguments Wednesday and Thursday at Pontiac before granting the preliminary injunction, which is expected to keep abortion legal statewide until the Michigan Supreme Court or voters can decide in the fall.
Michigan’s 1931 law, which came into effect after the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, prohibits abortion in all cases, except in the life of the mother. The dormant ban was retroactively blocked from going into effect in May when Judge Elizabeth Gleicher issued a preliminary injunction.
The state Court of Appeals later said the preliminary injunction only applied to the attorney general’s office, meaning some county prosecutors could charge the vendors with a felony.
The attorney representing Whitmer and Democratic prosecutors argued that allowing county prosecutors to decide whether to enforce the 1931 ban would cause confusion and force many providers to suspend all abortion services.
“We can’t expect doctors to read a prosecutor’s mind and try to figure out what a prosecutor thinks the life-saving exception means. That is precisely what would happen if the preliminary injunction is not issued,” Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit said Thursday during closing arguments.
Kallman said in closing arguments that granting a preliminary injunction is not the way laws should be changed.
“It is the right of every person in the state of Michigan to have a say and vote or go through their representatives and go through the proper legislative and elected process to change a law,” Kallman said.
A ballot initiative seeking to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution garnered 753,759 signatures in July and is expected to ultimately decide the status of abortion access in Michigan. The amendment awaits final approval for a November vote by the state Board of Electors.
The state of abortion in Michigan is expected to have a dramatic impact on the November general election in the battleground state, where Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel, also a Democrat, have made abortion rights a centerpiece of their re-election campaigns.
“In the absence of this preliminary injunction, doctors face a very real threat of prosecution depending on where they practice,” Nessel said in a statement issued after Friday’s ruling.
Joey Cappelletti is a staff member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercover issues.