Planned Parenthood and a Michigan abortion provider filed suit yesterday in the Michigan Court of Claims seeking to invalidate Michigan's 1931 statute that outlaws all abortions, except those necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman. The complaint (full text) in Planned Parenthood of Michigan v. Attorney General of the State of Michigan, (Ct.Cl., filed April 7, 2022), contends that the statute violates various provisions of the Michigan Constitution. ACLU issued a press release announcing the lawsuit. Even though Attorney General Dana Nessel is named as defendant in the lawsuit, she issued a statement saying in part:
I will not use the resources of my office to defend Michigan's 1931 statute criminalizing abortion.
WMUK expands on Nessel's position:
She says her office would not defend the abortion ban using a process that assigns teams of attorneys to argue both sides of a legal controversy. Nessel says she would only do that if ordered to by a court. “I will not enforce it and neither will I defend it,” she said. “I will take no part in driving women back into the dark ages and into the back alleys.”
Nessel says she will leave it up local prosecutors to defend their ability to enforce an abortion ban in their counties if they want to do that. And the Democratic attorney general says she would not object if Republicans in the Legislature want to join the case and take on the role of defending the state’s abortion ban.
Meanwhile, yesterday Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer filed another lawsuit challenging the 1931 abortion ban. A press release from her office, describing the lawsuit, says in part:
Today, Governor Gretchen Whitmer filed a lawsuit and used her executive authority to ask the Michigan Supreme Court to immediately resolve whether Michigan’s Constitution protects the right to abortion....
The lawsuit asks the court to recognize a constitutional right to an abortion under the Due Process Clause of the Michigan Constitution. It also asks the court to stop enforcement of the 1931 Michigan abortion ban. The abortion ban violates Michigan’s due process clause, which provides a right to privacy and bodily autonomy that is violated by the state’s near-total criminal ban of abortion. It also violates Michigan’s Equal Protection Clause due to the way the ban denies women equal rights because the law was adopted to reinforce antiquated notions of the proper role for women in society.
