Roe V. Wade: Abortion Would Be A Felony In Michigan If Overturned

A furious battle is shaping up in the United States Senate over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh will be questioned about his position on Roe v Wade and whether he would support overturning the landmark ruling that legalized abortion in the United States.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has said there’s every reason to believe Kavanaugh would overturn Roe, and President Donald Trump has said in the past that he will only appoint pro-life judges to the bench, giving pro-choice Americans every right to worry.

If the ruling were to be overturned, abortion regulations would vary by state. In Michigan, abortion would become a felony

Michigan’s 1931 law

Information analyzed by Axios shows that Michigan would revert to an abortion ban that was in place before Roe. While the state has a pre-Roe abortion statute, it has not moved to pass laws that would automatically make abortion illegal in the event that the ruling is overturned. According to Axios, South Dakota, North Dakota, Louisiana and Mississippi have such laws in place.

If a case rises to the U.S. Supreme Court that leads the justices to overturn the landmark case that legalized abortion in 1973, Michigan would revert to the last abortion law on the books – a 1931 law that made performing an abortion a felony, unless it was to save the life of the mother.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, Michigan’s pre-Roe abortion statute includes an exception to protect a woman’s life. The law has no exceptions for rape or incest.

In Michigan, abortion rates have been declining for the past 30 years, from a high of 49,098 in 1987 to 26,594 in 2017, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services. The number of clinics that provide abortions has also been declining and 89 percent of the state’s counties had no clinics where abortions are performed, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

The issue also has been coming up in the Michigan race for governor, where the eventual winner could have the ability to sign or veto any abortion legislation that is considered by lawmakers, according to reports.

The three Democrats – former Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, former Detroit Health Department Director Abdul El-Sayed and retired businessman Shri Thanedar – all support abortion rights and have said they will fight to protect that right.

All the Republican candidates for governor — Attorney General Bill Schuette, Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, state Sen. Patrick Colbeck and Saginaw Township physician Jim Hines — said after a debate last month that they would let Michigan’s anti-abortion law stand.

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Abortion laws across the country

According to Axios, 17 states have either laws or court rulings that protect access to abortion regardless of Roe, four states have laws that would immediately make abortion illegal if Roe is overturned and seven states have pre-Roe abortion restrictions. The remaining 22 states and Washington D.C. have no clear regulations in place.

A new poll from NBC and The Wall Street Journal shows that support for Roe v Wade has hit an all-time high. According to the poll, 88 percent of Democrats, 76 percent of independent and 52 percent of Republicans support the ruling.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he expects confirmation hearings for Kavanaugh to begin in late August or early September and for Kavanaugh to be confirmed by Oct. 1.

Abortion isn’t the only issue that has Republicans and Democrats sparring over Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Democrats are demanding access to paperwork from Kavanaugh's tenure as staff secretary in Bush's White House, on the 2000 election presidential recount and on special counsel Kenneth Starr's probe of President Bill Clinton. The tally could stretch at least 1 million pages. Democratic lawmakers are pushing for more information before meeting one-on-one with Kavanaugh.

And with a thin majority in the Senate and the absence of John McCain, Republicans can’t afford to lose even a single member of the caucus if all Democrats vote against him. The votes of Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, both pro-choice Republicans, will be closely watched as the two senators, along with McCain, cast the nay votes that prevented the repeal of Obamacare.

Reporting from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Image: Pro-life activists try to block the signs of pro-choice activists in front of the the U.S. Supreme Court during the 2018 March for Life January 19, 2018 in Washington, DC. Activists gathered in the nation's capital for the annual event to mark the anniversary of the Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion in 1973. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)