County prosecutors in Michigan will temporarily be blocked from enforcing a 1930s-era abortion ban following a tumultuous legal day in the Great Lakes State with competing court rulings.
Judge Jacob J. Cunningham of the Oakland County Circuit Court issued a temporary restraining order Monday that blocks 13 county prosecutors from enforcing the state’s 1931 law banning abortion. The judge’s order was in response to a request by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), who made her plea in her existing lawsuit against the group of prosecutors who have abortion clinics in their counties.
“I am grateful for this relief — however temporary — because it will help ensure that Michigan’s doctors, nurses, and health care systems can continue caring for their patients,” Whitmer wrote in a statement following the quick temporary reversal of an earlier appeals court decision Monday.
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A Zoom hearing for the matter is slated for Wednesday, Cunningham added.
Cunningham’s order came shortly after the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled Monday that an injunction on the state’s pre-Roe v. Wade 1931 abortion ban wouldn’t apply to local prosecutors, which would have paved the way for an abortion crackdown in certain red parts of the state as the court’s ruling was set to take effect in 21 days.
The order was “necessary to prevent the immediate and irreparable injury that will occur if defendants are allowed to prosecute abortion providers under (the 1931 law) without a full resolution of the merits of the pending cases challenging the statute,” Cunningham wrote in his ruling responding to the appeals court decision.
Abortion has remained legal in Michigan since the ban was temporarily blocked on May 17, nearly a month before the Supreme Court‘s June 24 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which unraveled a half-century of abortion precedent and allowed states to create laws severely restricting or banning abortion procedures.
The earlier appeals court decision came after a pair of county prosecutors filed a lawsuit to stop the May 17 order. Whitmer and state Attorney General Dana Nessel have expressed vehement opposition to the 1930s-era law, which outlaws almost all abortions except in circumstances in which the mother’s life is in danger.
“This lack of legal clarity — that took place within the span of a workday — is yet another textbook example of why the Michigan Supreme Court must take up my lawsuit against the 1931 extreme abortion ban as soon as possible,” Whitmer added in her statement Monday evening,
And before Cunningham’s order, Planned Parenthood of Michigan said it would continue to evaluate “legal options and remains committed to protecting abortion access in Michigan,” a spokesperson for the group said in a statement Monday.
While some prosecutors against abortion sued to enforce the abortion ban that can find violators guilty of manslaughter, other county prosecutors against the 1931 law have stood alongside the governor and attorney general, saying they do not plan to prosecute such cases.
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“Michigan’s anti-abortion statutes were written and passed in 1931. There were no women serving in the Michigan legislature,” prosecutors from Oakland, Ingham, Washtenaw, Genesee, Wayne, Marquette, and Kalamazoo wrote in a joint statement on April 7.
The prosecutors against the 1930s-era law said they “cannot and will not support criminalizing reproductive freedom,” adding that they would not put healthcare providers in unsafe, “untenable situations.”
