A judge ruled Wednesday that Michigan’s 1931 abortion law violated the state’s constitution, barring it from being enforced.
The state’s old abortion law criminalized all abortions other those done to “preserve the life of the mother,” and was the subject of a legal battle after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
The law, according to Judge Elizabeth Gleicher, violated the right to “bodily integrity” and “equal protection,” which are inscribed in the state’s constitution, the Detroit Free Press reported. Gleicher’s ruling was the first time a Michigan judge had weighed in on the constitutionality of the law since the Supreme Court’s federal abortion ruling.
“Manifestly, criminalizing abortion will eliminate access to a mainstay healthcare service. For 50 years, Michiganders have freely exercised the right to safely control their health and their reproductive destinies by deciding when and whether to carry a pregnancy to term. Eliminating abortion access will force pregnant women to forgo control of the integrity of their own bodies, regardless of the effect on their health and lives,” Gleicher wrote in the opinion, according to the outlet.
“Enforcement of (the criminal abortion ban) will endanger the health and lives of women seeking to exercise their constitutional right to abortion. Enforcement also threatens pregnant women with irreparable injury because without the availability of abortion services, women will be denied appropriate, safe and constitutionally protected medical care,” Gleicher added.
Michigan Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer, who also had filed a suit against the 1931 rule, praised the judge’s ruling. She added that those who support the five-decade-old law are “extremists” and that the ruling will likely be challenged.
“We know that there’s a group of extremists who will stop at nothing to ban abortion even in cases of rape and incest. With our rights still hanging by a thread, the Michigan Supreme Court needs to provide certainty and rule on my lawsuit to protect the right to abortion in the state constitution,” Whitmer said following the ruling.
“While other states — and even some politicians in Lansing — take steps to control women’s bodies by defending extreme restrictions on abortion and health care, I will fight like hell for reproductive freedom,” Whitmer added.