Post-Dobbs, The Abortion Battle Hits Activist State Courts
Part 3 of 3
Earlier this year, Whitmer first filed a lawsuit in her role as governor asking the court to declare that a 1931 Michigan abortion ban violates the due process and equal protection clauses of the Michigan constitution. That 1931 ban has been unenforceable since Roe was decided but remains on the books.
A lower court had stayed enforcement of the law pending the Dobbs decision. On Friday, in response to Dobbs, Whitmer filed a motion “asking the Michigan Supreme Court to immediately consider her lawsuit asking the court to decide if Michigan’s state constitution protects the right to abortion.”
Since the draft opinion in Dobbs leaked last month, Whitmer has also been whipping up public sentiment in advance of any hearing before the Michigan Supreme Court. “Now is the time to use every tool in our toolbox to protect all aspects of reproductive health care,” Whitmer said in a May press release, promising that she is “going to fight like h-ll so every Michigander can make decisions about their own body.”
“However we personally feel about abortion, health, not politics, should drive important medical decisions,” Whitmer argued, adding that “a woman must be able to make her own medical decisions with the advice of a health-care professional she trusts. Politicians should not make that decision for her.”
Lying to the Public
Beyond her euphemistic reference to “health care” and “medical decisions,” Whitmer seeks to hide the extreme abortion regime she wants for Michigan by diverting attention from the impact of a Michigan Supreme Court decision declaring the existence of a state constitutional right to abortion. She does this in two ways.
First, Whitmer focuses on the lack of a rape or incest exception to the 1931 abortion ban to create the impression that her lawsuit would merely render just that aspect of the law unconstitutional. But, if Whitmer succeeds in having a state constitutional right to abortion divined in the due process or equal protection clauses of the Michigan constitution, the state legislature would be unable to regulate abortion and taxpayer-funded abortions could be mandated.
Whitmer also misleads the public by citing a poll that 77 percent of Michiganders “believe abortion should be a woman’s decision.” That poll, however, failed to inquire about respondents’ views on any specifics, such as whether taxpayer-funded abortions should be constitutionally required or late-term abortions permitted.
What about parental notification or consent laws? Or laws banning abortions based on the sex of the unborn child? Such laws are widely supported, yet if Whitmer succeeds in her lawsuit, the Michigan Supreme Court would wrest those questions away from the legislative branch.
That is precisely what Whitmer and other abortion apologists want. They know that no matter how many polls they trot out, most of America does not want the extreme abortion regime that exists in California and the other states where courts have declared a state constitutional right to abortion exists.
The justices of the Michigan Supreme Court, like those on the Kansas Supreme Court, may not care. But on August 2, 2022, we’ll know if Kansans do, and pro-life advocates would be wise to watch the developments in both states to ensure that Dobbs’ promise to return the question to the people is fulfilled.
https://thefederalist.com/2022/06/27/post-dobbs-the-abortion-battle-hits-activist-state-courts/