With the Supreme Court poised to overturn Roe v. Wade in a matter of days, Michigan is closer than ever to seeing a draconian abortion ban from 1931 be reinstated as state law. The 1931 ban criminalizes abortion, makes felons out of reproductive health care providers, and provides no exceptions for rape or incest. Anti-choice advocates have touted the near-total abortion as the most restrictive in the country.
To make matters worse, yesterday an even more radical and extreme abortion ban was introduced in the state legislature that would put nurses and doctors in prison for 10 to 20 years, underscoring again that Michigan’s governor will soon be the last line of defense for millions of women, families, and medical workers.
This critical development raises the following questions for the remaining Republican gubernatorial candidates to answer immediately:
- Will they double down on their support of Michigan’s dormant abortion ban by endorsing this new legislation that would imprison reproductive healthcare providers for up to 20 years?
- Like Garrett Soldano, do they plan to limit access to contraception or plan B?
- Would they support a law to prosecute doctors who give instructions on how to give an abortion or provide referrals to providers as proposed by National Right To Life?
