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Michigan AG Nessel pledges to not prosecute abortions if Roe is reversed

Posted at 4:55 PM, Apr 16, 2019
and last updated 2019-04-16 16:55:53-04

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says if the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision is overturned, she won’t enforce state laws on the books that ban abortion.

The Democrat told a Planned Parenthood conference Tuesday that it’s “likely” the 1973 ruling legalizing abortion will be reversed. But she says “we can and we will fight back.”

She pledges to never prosecute a woman or her doctor for terminating a pregnancy.

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also spoke at the meeting in Lansing. She pointed to a new Ohio law that would ban most abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. Similar legislation has passed in Georgia.

Whitmer says if Michigan’s Republican-led Legislature moves similarly, abortion rights activists have “a powerful backstop in a veto from my office.”