Michigan House Passes Extreme Anti-Choice Bill
Center for Reproductive Rights urges State Senate to protect women’s fundamental rights and health, reject dangerous and cruel legislation
(PRESS RELEASE) The Michigan House of Representatives yesterday advanced an extreme anti-choice measure that could virtually eliminate the use of
medication abortion and impose unwarranted physical plant requirements on abortion providers that could shutter the doors of nearly every clinic in the
state.
Said Nancy Northup, president and CEO for the Center for Reproductive Rights:
“Rather than focusing on the pressing issues of job creation and the economy, anti-choice politicians in Michigan have worked double time to make it
virtually impossible for women to obtain a safe and legal abortion in the state.
“They are deliberately distracting from Governor Snyder’s efforts to focus on Michigan’s troubled economy and introducing bills that will undoubtedly
increase hardships for women at the low end of the economic scale.
“Members of the state Senate must reject this downright hostility toward their female constituents and remember that voters sent them to the statehouse
to fix the state’s fiscal problems-not to trample on women’s constitutional rights.”
HB 5711, which now heads to the State Senate, was passed this week despite Governor Rick Snyder’s priority to focus on improving the state’s economy and
unemployment rate. Just last week, Governor Snyder’s spokeswoman reiterated to the Associated Press that the
governor’s “top focus and priority” was on the state’s continued economic recovery.
Supporters of the bill have admitted that these proposed measures aren’t in the interest of women’s health, but in fact a backdoor effort to ban abortion
in Michigan all together. According to an interview with WILX Channel 10, NBC’s
affiliate in Lansing, Mich., state Rep. Mike Shirkey (R-Clark Lake) said, “Until we completely eliminate abortions in Michigan and completely defund
Planned Parenthood, we have work to do.”
A House committee also advanced a measure this week that would ban all abortions 20 weeks post-fertilization, allowing an exception only to save a pregnant
woman’s life.