Women, doctors brace for more uncertainty after court halts Michigan’s abortion ban

Abortion is a front and center issue in one of US’s biggest battleground states

Women in Michigan are facing unprecedented uncertainty as the battle over the state’s pre-Roe abortion ban wages on in the courts.

On Monday, a judge took the latest step in the saga and issued a restraining order preventing any prosecutors in the state from enforcing the ban. The decision arrived in response to an appeals court ruling separately that the law was unconstitutional and issued an injunction, then found that the injunction only applied to the attorney general’s office.

The back-and-forth in the court system over the issue is significant given Democrats’ control of the governor’s mansion and attorney general’s office while Republicans, who are seeking to pass such abortion bans across the country, control the state legislature.

As such, there’s little chance of any changes to Michigan’s abortion law coming through normal channels for the time being. The fate of abortion rights for millions of women remains an unsettled issue: If the ban is allowed to go into effect, it would virtually prevent all abortions in the state except for cases in which the mother’s life was in danger.

That uncertainty is causing problems not only for patients but for abortion providers themselves, who say the implementation of the law is only going to worsen doctor shortages in the state.

“Our healthcare team should not be faced with prosecution for providing healthcare to women. Women and their families with their doctors are the best people to make decisions about reproductive care. Not politicians and prosecutors. We already are facing a critical shortage of OBGYNs in rural Michigan. If this law goes into effect -- we are going to see this worsen quickly as OBGYNs are not going to stay and deliver healthcare in areas we are at risk of going to jail for doing our jobs,” Dr Melissa Bayne, an OBGYN based in Fremont, Michigan, and activist with the Committee to Protect Healthcare, said in a statement shared with The Independent.

“[T}his outdated and cruel 1931 Michigan law that we are threatened within Michigan is making that reality of limited access to lifesaving OBGYN healthcare even more extreme,” she added.

Abortion is generally supported in Michigan. A majority of adults say the procedures should be legal in all or most cases, while about 42 per cent say it should be somewhat or completely banned.

Some prosecutors in the state have attempted to alleviate some of the recent uncertainty, writing in a joint statement on Monday that they would not use their offices’ resources to enforce the 1931 law “in the interim” while the legal battle over the ban continues.

But Republican attorneys in the state are vowing to go ahead with enforcement if the restraining order is lifted.

“If a report is presented to this office, we will review it like we do any other report of possible criminal behavior,” said Kent County prosecutor Christopher Becker. “We will make the decision to charge, or not to charge, based on the facts presented in the report and the applicable Michigan law.”