(Detroit) A Michigan judge officially struck down a 1931 law that criminalized statewide abortion on Wednesday, months after temporarily suspending it.
Posted at 5:58 p.m.
This is the latest development in the abortion rights saga in the United States, which is being debated in several courts and could become a matter of the ballot box in the upcoming midterm elections.
The law, which was dormant until the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the ‘Roe v. Wade’ decision in June, violates Michigan’s Constitution, Justice Elizabeth has ruled. Gleicher of the State Court of Motions.
In her decision, Judge Gleicher found that preventing women from having access to a “safe and routine medical procedure not only prevents them from controlling their bodies, but also robs them of their dignity” – which is prohibited by the Constitution.
The verdict came as Michigan’s Supreme Court must determine whether a proposed amendment to the state constitution to include a fundamental right to abortion will appear on the November 8 election ballots. An announcement should be made by Friday on this subject.
Abortion rights supporters submitted a petition with more than 700,000 signatures supporting adding the proposed amendment to the ballot. This number easily exceeds the threshold required by the state, but a tie vote by the Board of State Scrutineers regarding spacing on the petition has prevented it from being recognized thus far.
The 1931 law made all abortions in Michigan criminal except in situations where the mother’s life was in danger.
Judge Gleicher considered that this law “forces motherhood” and prevents a woman from making her own choices for “her present and future life”.
The law “forces a pregnant woman to give up her reproductive choices and serve as a ‘vessel entitled to no more respect than other forms of collective ownership,’” Judge Gleicher wrote, citing constitutionalist Laurence Tribe.
The judge suspended the law in May. His ruling released Wednesday applies to all state and regional prosecutors.
The House of Representatives and the Senate, both controlled by Republicans, can appeal the decision, which follows a lawsuit filed by the organization Planned Parenthood.
Judge Gleicher acknowledged in July that she has made several donations to the organization and has also donated $1,000 to the election campaigns of Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel, both Democrats and pro-Democrats. right to abortion.
According to the judge, these supports were not sufficient to justify her transferring the file to another judge.
In another lawsuit, Governor Whitmer repeatedly asked the state Supreme Court to bypass the lower courts and decide the validity of the 1931 law once and for all. yet decided whether to intervene.