The Governor signed into law H.B. 4006 and 4032 on April 5, 2023. The repeal of Michigan’s longstanding abortion laws will be effective 90 days after the final close of the 2023 session. On March 8, 2023, H.B. 4006 & 4032 were discharged from committee without a hearing to the Senate floor and were passed with a vote of 20-18 along party lines. On March 2, 2023, the House passed H.B. 4006 and 4032 with a 58-50 vote. Two RLM endorsed representatives voted with the entire Democratic caucus to repeal Michigan’s long-standing abortion ban (2 other Republicans were absent on the day of the vote). On March 3, 2023, H.B. 4006 was amended in committee to include a repeal of both M.C.L. 750.14 and 750.15 and was passed out of committee with the substitute along party lines. H.B. 4006 was introduced on January 12, 2023, and was referred to the House Judiciary Committee. H.B. 4032 was introduced on January 18, 2023 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee.

Description

H.B. 4006 repeals M.C.L. 750.14, Michigan’s long-standing abortion ban, and M.C.L. 750.15, Michigan’s ban on selling or advertising abortion inducing drugs. H.B. 4032 removes the sentencing guidelines for committing an abortion or for killing a woman in an abortion.

Background

Michigan’s prohibition on abortion except to save the life of the mother has been in place since 1846. Because of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, the abortion law was only partially enforceable since 1973. Pro-abortion legislators had begun introducing legislation to repeal this long-standing law for several years with the anticipation of Roe being overturned and the abortion decision being sent back to the states. Unfortunately, the “firewall” of prolife legislators who have successfully stopped repeal efforts was replaced with pro-abortion majorities in the Legislature in November and a pro-abortion Governor was re-elected. In addition, Proposition 3 was passed which enshrines a Constitutional right to unlimited abortion within the Michigan Constitution thereby making M.C.L. 750.14 (Michigan’s abortion law) essentially unconstitutional. Repeal of the statute is at this point is mostly symbolic with the exception of it being applicable to prevent post-viable abortions on healthy babies with healthy moms; however, it also means that in the future if Proposition 3 is repealed, a new abortion law would need to be passed in order to protect unborn children from abortion in Michigan.

History

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States issued the Dobbs decision which overturned Roe v. Wade and declared that there is no right to abortion found within the Federal Constitution. This decision ended the federal imposition of abortion-on-demand in all 50 states and returned the abortion decision to the respective states. However, prior to the court’s ruling, Governor Whitmer and Planned Parenthood in separate but collusive lawsuits filed in two different Michigan Courts claimed the right to abortion exists within the Michigan Constitution despite a Court of Appeals case from 1997 stating that no such right exists. Nevertheless, rogue justice Elizabeth Gleicher from the Court of Claims issued a preemptive injunction against Michigan’s abortion law preventing its enforcement in the event the Supreme Court would overturn Roe. Therefore, Michigan’s “1931” abortion ban has been enjoined and deemed unenforceable and is now considered mostly unconstitutional due to the passage of Proposition 3.