A state judge in Michigan with decades-long ties to Planned Parenthood has just ruled the state’s 90-year-old ban on most abortions is ‘unconstitutional.’
In a Wednesday ruling, Judge Elizabeth Gleicher of Michigan’s Court of Claims ruled that the law, which banned all abortions except when a woman’s life is in danger, would “endanger the health and lives of women” and take away their right to bodily autonomy. In addition, she said it violates the Michigan constitution’s equal protection clauses, which she claimed could be more broadly interpreted than the U.S. Constitution, The Daily Wire reports.
“Manifestly, criminalizing abortion will eliminate access to a mainstay healthcare service,” Gleicher noted in her opinion. “For 50 years, Michiganders have freely exercised the right to safely control their health and their reproductive destinies by deciding when and whether to carry a pregnancy to term. Eliminating abortion access will force pregnant women to forgo control of the integrity of their own bodies, regardless of the effect on their health and lives.”
She also noted that there is a “peculiar state interest” in ensuring ‘women’s health’ and that the ban also blocks women from being able to achieve success as parents of “wanted children.”
“The statute not only compels motherhood and its attendant responsibilities, it wipes away the mother’s ability to make the plans she considers most beneficial for the future of her existing or desired children. Despite that men play necessary role in the procreative process, the law deprives only women of their ability to thrive as contributing participants in world outside the home and as parents of wanted children,” Gleicher wrote.
The 1931 law was put on hold earlier this year ahead of an eventual U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing the procedure in all 50 states. At that time, existing bans in states that had them were ruled null and void but they remained on the books to serve as “trigger laws” should the Roe decision every be reversed, as it was in June.
Gleicher’s ruling is intended to permanently block the law from being enforced, but The Daily Wire noted that groups will be appealing the decision to a higher court known for reversing many of her decisions.
But here’s the really disturbing part: Gleicher has a decades-long association with the leading abortion provider in the U.S., Planned Parenthood, the outlet noted:
The original lawsuit precipitating Wednesday’s ruling was filed earlier this year by Planned Parenthood of Michigan against Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.
Critics have skewered Gleicher for refusing to give up the case despite her decades-old connection to Planned Parenthood.
After taking the case, Gleicher disclosed that she donates yearly to Planned Parenthood’s Michigan affiliate. As a lawyer, she also repeatedly represented the abortion giant as far back as the 1990s, and she has also received a Planned Parenthood “advocate award.”
Following the SCOTUS ruling, bans or laws severely restricting the procedure took effect in Texas, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Idaho, Arkansas, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Missouri, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky.
Meanwhile, The Daily Caller noted further that “Ohio and Georgia have six-week bans in effect. Florida, Utah, and North Carolina have bans on abortions later in the pregnancy, and Indiana’s 22-week ban goes into effect later this month.”
