Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm Will Again Veto Partial-Birth Abortion Ban

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jun 12, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm Will Again Veto Partial-Birth Abortion Ban

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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 12
, 2008

Lansing, MI (LifeNews.com) — Gov. Jennifer Granholm will, once again, veto a ban on partial-birth abortions, putting the potential running mate for Barack Obama well outside the mainstream. The legislature sent Granholm the ban after the Senate backed it on a bipartisan 24 to 13 vote and the House 72-34.

Should Granholm follow through with her promise to veto the bill, the legislature would need a two-thirds vote to override it.

While the House would easily be able to do that, the Senate is five votes short from having enough to make the ban law.

Granholm initially commented on the new ban as the legislature was working on it and said she would likely veto it because it doesn’t have a health exception, even though the three-day-long abortion procedure is never needed to protect a woman’s health.

The measure, Senate Bill 776, is designed to mirror the federal partial-birth abortion ban and is needed, backers say, so state and local law enforcement can make sure the prohibition is enforced.

In October 2003, Governor Granholm vetoed Senate Bill 395, the "Legal Birth Definition Act," which sought to outlaw partial-birth abortion by granting full legal status to the child as soon as any part of his or her body emerges from the mother.

After Congress approved the federal partial-birth abortion ban, the Supreme Court upheld it as constitutional, saying a health exception was not necessary and noting that abortion hurts women’s physical and mental health.

The new Michigan partial-birth abortion ban calls the procedure "gruesome and inhumane" and says its "disturbing similarity to the killing of a newborn infant promotes a complete disregard for infant human life that can only be countered by a prohibition."

ACTION: Contact Gov. Jennifer Granholm and ask her to sign the partial-birth abortion ban into law. Contact her at: P.O. Box 30013, Lansing, MI 48909, (p) (517) 373-3400 or (517) 335-7858 or fax 517-335-6863. You can also click here for additional contact information.