Michigan lawsuit aims to lift 24-hour wait period for abortions

[RandySF]

In December, they made political concessions to overcome opposition within their own party — notably, keeping in place a 24-hour waiting period required for women seeking an abortion.

Now, two health care organizations are suing the state, arguing the failure to lift the waiting period and two other remaining restrictions means Michigan isn’t properly implementing a 2022 ballot proposal that wrote broad abortion rights into the Michigan Constitution.

When it comes to abortion, the only interest the state should have is in “the health of the pregnant person, consistent with the standard of care without intruding upon an individual's autonomous decision,” Rabia Muqaddam, an attorney representing both Northland Family Planning Center and Medical Students for Choice, said Tuesday in state court.

Michigan Court of Claims Judge Siwa Patel heard initial arguments in the lawsuit from Northland, a health care organization with abortion clinics in metro Detroit, and Medical Students for Choice, a nonprofit focused on abortion education and family planning.


https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/michigan-lawsuit-aims-lift-24-hour-wait-period-abortions?utm_source=Bridge+MI+app&utm_medium=stories

[DemocraticPatriot]

1. Absolutely, this should not stand under the Constitutional Amendment passed last fall.

Nor this:

Patel, however, questioned the merit of showing women seeking abortions pictures of fetuses — currently required under Michigan law ahead of obtaining an abortion — asking if it could be seen as “passing a sort of value judgment on whether to seek, or not seek, abortion care.”

Regarding the waiting period:

Supporters of the statutes contend there is no need to rush life-altering procedures and that women should be provided more information about abortions prior to having one performed, as required under the law.

Repeal advocates, however, say the information provided is often medically inaccurate and judgmental. They contend the 24-hour delay burdens women attempting to access an abortion.

That was the crux of arguments from Muqaddam, an attorney representing both plaintiffs in the case. She said the 24-hour waiting period can increase the cost of an abortion, both for outstate women needing lodging because of the wait and in-state women who spend extra on gas to make two trips.

“The state has acknowledged that these laws do impact or burden to some degree,” Muqaddam said, “and if they burden to some degree, then we think they infringe” on a woman’s right to have an abortion in Michigan.


All of this crap was passed by Republican legislatures at the behest of forced-birth advocates trying to discourage women in Michigan from exercising their rights under Roe... and I don't understand any Michigan Democrat vowing to protect these out of date laws-- which one Democrat from Detroit apparently did, according to the article-- preventing these things from being reversed in the enabling legislation passed after the Constitutional amendment was passed.

Forcing a waiting period before an abortion, and forcing pregnant women to view photos of fetuses are clearly infringements upon their rights in the state Constitutional amendment, and need to be GONE! I hope the courts will see that as clearly as I do.

Furthermore, forcing a 24-hour wait in any emergency situation if dangerous to the health if not the life of the woman involved.