The Reproductive Health Act

H.B. 4949—Rep. Laurie Pohutsky & S.B. 593—Sen. Erika Geiss
H.B. 4950—Rep. Penelope Tsernoglou & S.B. 474—Sen. Sarah Anthony
H.B. 4951—Rep. Kara Hope & S.B. 475—Sen. Stephanie Chang
H.B. 4952—Rep. Carrie Rheingans & S.B. 476—Sen. Erika Geiss
H.B. 4953—Rep. Christine Morse
H.B. 4954—Rep. Felicia Brabec
H.B. 4955—Rep. Natalie Price
H.B. 4956—Rep. Julie Rogers
H.B. 4957—Rep. Samantha Steckloff & S.B. 477—Sen. Mary Cavanagh
H.B. 4958—Rep. Regina Weiss & S.B. 478—Sen. Mallory McMorrow
H.B. 4959—Rep. Kristian Grant & S.B. 479—Sen. Dayna Polehanki

Current Status

The final bill of the Reproductive Health Act package was signed into law by the Governor on December 11, 2023. The bills will go into effect in February and will repeal the following laws: clinic licensing, humane disposal of fetal remains, priority funding for family planning money away from abortion providers, abortion reporting, abortion complication reporting, the abortion insurance opt-out law, the partial birth abortion ban, the “quick-child” law (enhanced penalties for late term abortions), and the prohibition on abortion referrals from the college parenting offices. The last RHA bill, HB 4949, was signed by the Governor on the 10-year anniversary of the Abortion Insurance Op-Out Law and repeals that law. On November 21, the first 8 of the 9 bills in the RHA package were signed into law by the Governor: Senate Bills 474, 476, and 477 and House Bills 4951, 4953, 4954, 4955, and 4956. On November 7, 9 of the original 11 bills in the RHA passed in the Senate along party lines and were sent to the Governor. On November 1, late in the night S.B. 474, 476, and 477 passed along party lines on the House floor. All three bills had amendments with S.B. 474 removing the repeal of informed consent (thus retaining the law) and reinstating the repeal on partial birth abortion. S.B. 476 and 477 had amendments to break the tie-bar with the other bills. H.B. 4949, 4951, 4953, 4954, 4955, and 4956 were passed on the House floor along party lines on the same night. All 9 bills were sent back to the Senate for a final vote. On October 26, S.B. 593 was voted on the Senate floor along party lines, with all 20 Democrats voting yes and all 18 Republicans voting no and was referred to the House Health Policy Committee. On October 19, S.B. 474-477 were voted on the Senate floor along party lines. On October 17, S.B. 593 was introduced in the Senate and referred to the Senate Housing and Human Services Committee, and immediately taken up for testimony. S.B. 593 is almost identical to H.B. 4949 except it does NOT repeal the partial birth abortion law. On the same day, S.B. 593 along with S.B. 474-477 were voted out of committee with all of the Democrats voting yes and all Republicans voting no. On October 10, testimony was heard on S.B. 474-477; abortion supporters were given the majority of the time with 8 people speaking in favor of the bills and only 3 allowed to speak in opposition. On September 20, 2023, H.B. 4949, 4950, 4953, 4954, 4955, and 4956 were voted out of the House Health Policy committee with every Republican voting no and one Democrat voting against the bills. The bills were then sent to the House floor. On September 14, 2023, testimony on the Reproductive Health Act (RHA) H.B. 4949-4959 was provided to the committee. Abortion supporters were given nearly an hour to testify, and 7 separate testimonies were given in support of the bill package. Testimony in opposition to the bills was limited to 15 minutes. The House bills were introduced on September 7, and were referred to the House Health Policy Committee. The Senate bills are identical to their corresponding House bills and were also introduced on September 7th and were referred to the Senate Housing and Human Services Committee.

Description

Collectively, this bill package would codify the language of Proposition 3 into law and would create a fundamental right to abortion in state law (this is in addition to the language in the Constitution) and would prevent ANY form of perceived infringement of that right by any form of government including schools. These bills would repeal the clinic licensing law, the abortion reporting law including abortion complication reporting, the requirement for humane disposal of fetal remains, the abortion insurance opt-out law, the prohibitions against college pregnancy services centers referring for abortions, informed consent including the 24-hour waiting period, coercive abortion screening. In addition, the bills would repeal any sanctions against doctors’ licensing for any violation of the law and would remove any reference to the repealed laws from our criminal code. It would repeal the ban on Medicaid funded abortions, amend the Medicaid program to eliminate any cost sharing for abortion services, and allow a woman to go to any doctor (not just Medicaid providers) and the state will reimburse the abortion provider at 100% of the cost they normally charge. Essentially, this package of bills would eliminate nearly every legal protection for the unborn and for women seeking abortions.

Background

Michigan’s prohibition on abortion except to save the life of the mother had been in place from 1846 until April 2023 when the repeal of our complete ban was signed into law after being passed by the current proabortion legislature. Prior to the repeal, collusive lawsuits filed by Governor Whitmer and Planned Parenthood resulted in an injunction of our law so that when Roe was overturned by the Dobbs decision in June of 2022, our law was not allowed to go back into full enforcement. Proposal 3 was passed in November of 2023 and creates a State Constitutional right to abortion but goes much farther than Roe by redefining “fetal viability” and prohibiting any preference for childbirth over abortion in state policies. Voters were told that Prop 3 would “Restore Roe” yet each of the prolife laws being considered for repeal were passed after Roe v. Wade went into effect and have provided commonsense regulations on the abortion industry and safety for women seeking abortion all during the Roe era. The “Reproductive Health Act” was introduced in two previous terms and has long sought to create a fundamental right to abortion and to repeal longstanding guardrails on abortion. Previous versions of the RHA also included a repeal of the parental consent for abortion law. Despite repeated efforts to completely deregulate the abortion industry, proabortion legislators now claim the RHA legislation is in “accordance with the will of voters who said yes to Prop 3.”

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, in November of 2022, Michigan passed Proposition 3 (or the Reproductive Freedom For all initiative), adding section 28 of article I into the state constitution to enshrine a right to abortion for all. While this amendment did render many of our prolife laws seemingly unconstitutional, no law is officially rendered unenforceable unless it is specified by the Court or repealed. Furthermore, many of the laws in the Reproductive Health Act are NOT unconstitutional according to this new provision of the Michigan Constitution, as laws such as clinic licensing and inspections, abortion reporting, and humane disposal of fetal remains by abortion clinics in no way impede a woman’s “right” to abortion but are rather laws that affect the abortion industry’s profits.

Bill Breakdown

H.B. 4949 (& S.B. 593) codifies the language of Prop 3 into law and repeals:

  • The ban on Partial birth abortion (penal code) MCL 750.90h (S.B. 593 does not repeal this law)
  • Quick Child law MCL 750.323
  • The legal birth definition act, 2004 PA 135, MCL 333.10812 to 333.1085 (deemed unconstitutional and unenforced, but still on the books)
  • P.A. 360 of 2002—allocation of family planning funds to non-abortion providers
  • Abortion Insurance Opt-Out MCL 550.541 – 550.551

H.B. 4950 (& 474) Health Code Bill that repeals:

  • Abortion reporting MCL 333.2835
  • Disposal of fetal remains MCL 333.2836
  • Abortion complication reporting MCL 333.2837
  • Legislative Findings for informed consent MCL 333.17014
  • Informed Consent for abortion MCL 333.17015 ** the bill was amended to retain this provision
  • Coercive abortion screening MCL 333.17015a ** the bill was amended to retain this provision
  • Partial birth abortion ban MCL 333.17016 (health code)
  • Ban on telemedicine abortions MCL 333.17017 (sunset in 2018 and not renewed, but still on the books)
  • Clinic Licensing MCL 333.20115 and 333.22224

H.B. 4951 (& S.B. 475) sentencing guideline bill that repeals:

  • Criminal penalty for committing a Partial birth abortion (MCL 750.90h)
  • Criminal penalty for violation of the Quick Child law (MCL 750.323)

H.B. 4952 (& S.B. 476) Born Alive Infant Protection Act

  • Changes the definition of “abortion” within the Born Alive Infant Protection Act.

H.B. 4953, H.B. 4954 & H.B. 4956

  • Remove references to the partial birth abortion act from the revised judicature act, school aid act, and the expungement act.

H.B. 4955

  • Repeals reference to the disposal of fetal remains law in the occupational code.

H.B. 4957 (& S.B. 477)

  • Amends the Pregnant and Parenting Student Services act MCL 390.1595 to remove the prohibition against abortion referral within that program.

H.B. 4958 (& S.B. 478) repeals:

  • Medicaid Abortion Funding Ban P.A. 59 of 1987 MCL 400.109a, 400.109d, and 400.109e

** Not included in the bill package that was signed by the Governor**

H.B. 4959 (& S.B. 479)

  • Amends the Medicaid program to eliminate any cost sharing for abortion services and allows a woman to go to any doctor (not just Medicaid providers) and the state will reimburse at the “prevailing charges and reimbursement rates in the region.” MCL 400.108 and 400.109

** Not included in the bill package that was signed by the Governor**

*Senate bills in parenthesis are doubles of the corresponding house bills.