Access to abortion in Michigan, two years after Dobbs

Two years after the US Supreme Court abolished the right to abortion, Dobbs This decision enshrines some of the most comprehensive reproductive rights in the country in the Michigan Constitution. At least on paper.

Since voters approved Proposition 3 in 2022, the question is: What do these rights actually mean? What abortion restrictions remain? And what does a patient have to do to get an abortion in Michigan?

Democrats lifted some, but not all, remaining abortion restrictions

For example, although Democrats won majorities in the state’s House, Senate and governorship for the first time in decades last year, they failed to win enough votes from within their own party to repeal some of the most severe abortion restrictions still in place.

Patients are still prohibited from using their state health insurance, Medicaid, for an abortion, and there is still a mandatory 24-hour waiting period and a required consent form. According to Planned Parenthood of Michigan, about 150 patients each month have to cancel or reschedule their appointments because they made a mistake on these forms.

“Michigan residents have worked tirelessly to protect and expand reproductive freedom over the past two years, and it has truly made a difference in the lives of my patients,” said Dr. Sarah Wallett, chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood of Michigan, in an emailed statement.

“Despite all of our progress, every day I am forced by state law to turn away patients when they forget to print a time-stamped form and bring it to their abortion appointment. I still have to read my patients biased, one-size-fits-all, state-mandated information designed to discourage them from having an abortion.”

Since Dobbs, the number of out-of-state patients coming to PPMI has tripled, causing delays in care, she said. Abortion rights activists have filed a lawsuit to eliminate the mandatory 24-hour waiting period and informed consent requirement. That would also eliminate the requirement that only doctors (and not other advanced care professionals, such as nurse practitioners) can perform abortions in Michigan.

Beth Weiler/Michigan Radio

Democrats succeeded in lifting some restrictions in 2023, including allowing private insurance to cover abortions and repealing extensive facility regulations that providers say were designed to close clinics and prevent new ones from opening. (This allowed Planned Parenthood of Michigan to begin performing abortions at its Grand Rapids clinic earlier this year after the only other clinic in the city that offered them closed.)

Looming debates about parental consent and IVF

Meanwhile, anti-abortion activists in the state have filed a lawsuit to overturn Prop 3 and say they will fight any future efforts to lift further restrictions.

In a statement on the occasion of the Dobbs On the anniversary, Amber Roseboom, president of Right to Life of Michigan, said, “We cannot get away from the fact that we have had a rough few years in which voters enshrined a comprehensive ‘right’ to abortion in the state constitution. At this moment, it is important to remember that reproduction and abortion are not political party issues. They are and always have been women’s choices.”

Lifting the clinic restrictions has only further worsened the safety of abortion patients, Roseboom said. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Democrats “have eliminated transparency for the abortion industry by removing abortion reporting from the law… After failing in the legislative process to eliminate informed consent and the 24-hour waiting period, they have now appealed to the courts. Next, as we know, they want to eliminate parental consent for abortion.”

Michigan’s parental consent law requires minors to have a consent form signed by a parent or guardian or a court-approved waiver. Repealing that law was not included in the 2023 version of the Reproductive Health Act, although it was in previous versions. And abortion opponents say parental consent has broad support among voters.

But in March, several abortion rights advocacy groups, including the ACLU of Michigan, released a report aimed at overturning the law. Governor Gretchen Whitmer appeared to voice her support for repealing the parental consent law. “I can tell you it was part of the original package, and I advocated for the entire package to come to my desk,” she told Michigan Public’s Stateside.

But abortion opponents in Michigan say they are not pushing to abolish IVF after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos should be considered children and the Southern Baptist Convention voted against IVF earlier this month. Asked if Right to Life of Michigan considers embryos to be children, Roseboom said the group “does not have a policy on IVF as a practice. Many couples struggle with the issue of infertility and Right to Life of Michigan supports their efforts to build their families in an ethical way that values ​​every single human life.”

“IVF is not at risk in Michigan,” Roseboom said by email. “IVF has been practiced in Michigan since the 1970s and is not at risk. Any claim otherwise is a campaign tactic by Democrats desperate to mobilize their electorate in November.”