Michigan Lawmakers Vote To Ban Common Abortion Procedure

MICHIGAN — Michigan lawmakers voted this week to ban a common second-trimester abortion procedure, according to reports.

Michigan’s House and Senate both voted along party lines on legislation to ban dilation and evacuation procedures and to make it a felony for a physician to perform them except to save a woman’s life, the Huffington Post reported.

Anti-abortion advocates call the procedure “dismemberment abortion” and argue it is a cruel practice that should be outlawed, the Detroit News reported. Critics say the proposed ban is an unconstitutional attempt to undermine legal abortion rights guaranteed under Roe v. Wade.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said Tuesday that she will immediately veto the legislation once it reaches her desk.

“I think that these are decisions that should be made between a woman and her doctor,” Whitmer told reporters. “I’ve always supported a woman’s autonomy and freedom to make her own choices, and that should be no surprise to anyone in this town.”

Right to Life of Michigan is planning a petition drive to ban the abortion procedure if Whitmer follows through on her pledge to veto it, The Detroit News reported. According to the Detroit Free Press, the anti-abortion lobbying group has gotten four bills passed into law this way in the last 32 years.

During a D&E, doctors dilate the patient’s cervix and remove the fetus with suction and medical tools like forceps, according to the Huffington Post report.

The procedure is commonly used in the second trimester of pregnancy, usually after about 13 weeks of gestation, according to Planned Parenthood

In 2017, 1,777 D&E procedures were performed in Michigan, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. That's out of 26,600 total abortions, the Detroit News reported.

The new plan amends Michigan’s partial abortion ban to prevent physicians from performing the D&E procedure, unless an abortion is performed using a suction, Up North Live reported. The legislation would apply a two-year felony and a possible fine of $50,000 to those performing the abortion, the report said.

The woman would not be charged and the language makes an exception for situations where the mother’s life is at risk.

The only other states that have specific bans in effect on D&E procedures are Mississippi and West Virginia.

Michigan's Democratic lawmakers are speaking out against the new legislation, like State Sen. Erika Geiss.

“I can stand here and call out the hypocrisy of predominantly male legislators, most of whom, with zero medical background, somehow decided when they take office that they are medical experts and experts of women’s bodies and health care,” Geiss said during the Senate vote on Tuesday. “Instead of regulating the things that government should be regulating, the focus on regulating and criminalizing medical decisions and women’s health care is itself criminal.”

Many other states are currently acting on abortion laws.

The Alabama Senate on Tuesday evening passed the most restrictive abortion law in the United States, the Detroit News reported. That followed last week when Georgia became the fourth state this year to ban abortion at six weeks of pregnancy, a policy based on the earliest point a fetal heartbeat can be detected. Before Georgia, several other states passed the same "heartbeat" bill: Mississippi, Kentucky and Ohio in 2019; Iowa in 2018 and North Dakota in 2013.