Michigan Abortion Advocates File Suit Against Partial-Birth Abortion Ban
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 1, 2005
Lansing, MI (LifeNews.com) — Abortion advocates in Michigan on Tuesday filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn a new state law seeking to prohibit the gruesome partial-birth abortion procedure.
The state legislature gave final approval to the Legal Birth Definition Act in June 2004 after Governor Jennifer Granholm vetoed the bill. Pro-life groups obtained the signatures of over 460,000 people to bring the measure before the legislature in a veto-proof form.
The Legal Birth Definition Act seeks to ban the partial-birth abortion procedure by defining a moment of birth as the time when any part of the baby is visible outside the mother.
The ACLU, the Center for Reproductive Rights, a pro-abortion law firm, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the nation’s largest abortion business, filed the lawsuit in a federal district court in Detroit.
The groups argue that the measure could be construed as a ban on all forms of abortion.
They also contend the measure should have had exceptions for a woman’s health, though pro-life groups say such exceptions keep all abortions legal.
While two previous partial birth abortion bans in Michigan were struck down by the courts in 1996 and 1999, supporters of the Legal Birth Definition Act say it was specifically written to pass the constitutionality tests.
While President Bush recently signed a Partial-Birth Abortion Ban into law, the federal version differs from Michigan’s in that it expressly bans the partial-birth abortion procedure. It is currently being blocked until its constitutionality can be determined.
