Michigan Court of Claims: No mandatory 24-hour waiting period for abortion

Following a decision by the Michigan Court of Claims on Tuesday, the mandatory 24-hour waiting period for abortions in Michigan will no longer apply for the time being.

The state court on June 25 granted a request for a preliminary injunction declaring parts of the state’s abortion laws unconstitutional, court records show. Those provisions include mandatory waiting periods, a requirement to provide an informed consent form to an abortion provider and a ban on anyone other than a physician from performing abortions.

Michigan-based abortion clinic Northland Family Planning filed the lawsuit with Michigan state officials, including Attorney General Dana Nessel, as defendants. However, Nessel and others favor declaring those parts of the law unconstitutional, so the lawsuit was more of a plea for Nessel and the court to change how the state law is enforced.

“These provisions only served to delay and mislead patients, which is contrary to the goals of health care,” Nessel said in a statement. “We welcome this court decision and remain steadfast in our work to protect reproductive care for all Michigan residents.”

The court ruled that most of the three provisions of the state law were unconstitutional after Michigan voters approved Proposition 3 in 2022, which grants residents “a fundamental right to reproductive freedom.”

“Under this constitutional amendment, Michigan residents have the fundamental right to reproductive freedom, including the right to abortion care,” ruled Court of Claims Judge Sima Patel, “and the state cannot deny, burden or impair that freedom unless there is a compelling state interest in protecting the health of the person concerned.”

The informed consent provision requires patients seeking an abortion to sign a form at least 24 hours before the scheduled abortion acknowledging that they have read a “medically accurate depiction” of the fetus, a written description of the procedure, an informational pamphlet on prenatal care and child rearing, and a summary on “preventing coercion of abortion.”

Most of that bill was blocked, but Patel did not block the provision requiring providers to screen patients for coercion. She wrote that part did not impose an “undue burden” on receiving abortion services and “is consistent with the state’s compelling interest in protecting the patient’s health.”

Trained nurses, state-certified midwives and physician assistants are also now allowed to perform abortions because, according to Patel, they are “fully capable of providing early abortion care.”

Attorney Rabia Muqaddam, who filed the lawsuit for the Northland Family Planning Center, called the decision “groundbreaking.”

“The abortion restrictions we challenged in this case make it harder for patients to obtain abortion care and disproportionately impact Michiganders who already face health inequities without any medical justification,” Muqaddam said. “We hope the court will ultimately strike down these harmful restrictions for good. Michigan voters have made clear that access to abortion in their state is a fundamental right and must be free from ideological influences.”

Northland and the group Medical Students for Choice filed the lawsuit in February. Tuesday’s ruling is not the final decision, although it is unclear whether any group will seek to challenge Patel’s decision.