LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Thursday that voters will decide whether to place abortion rights in the state’s constitution.
FOX 17 is breaking down what led up to this decision.
A draft opinion, leaked in May, indicated that the United States Supreme Court planned to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision which legalized abortion.
As a result, Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit against Michigan’s 1931 law, which criminalizes abortion.
A judge granted a preliminary injunction to temporarily block the enforcement of that 1931 law.
Then, Governor Gretchen Whitmer filed a motion herself, urging the court to take up her lawsuit to protect abortion in the state of Michigan.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court officially overturned Roe v. Wade, which sparked protests not only in Michigan, but also around the country.
Michigan’s republican-led legislature then filed a request for an appeal in the court of claims’ decision to place the temporary injunction on the state’s 1931 abortion ban. Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker was one of the prosecutors throughout the state who also challenged that injunction.
A new ruling from the Michigan Court of Appeals in August stated that prosecutors could start enforcing the 1931 law.
The court said the preliminary injunction did not apply to county prosecutors because they are considered part of local government, while the preliminary injunction applied to state officials.
However, just a few days later, an Oakland County judge granted the preliminary injunction, once again barring county prosecutors from enforcing the ban, on the grounds that they were under the state attorney general.
Then, a group created the Reproductive Freedom for All (RFFA) campaign and worked to collect as many signatures as possible to let Michigan voters decide whether to keep abortion access legal in the state.
The petition needed more than 425,000 signatures to put the abortion issue on the November ballot in Michigan and RFFA collected more than 753,000 signatures.
Just last week, the Board of State Canvassers were deadlocked, along party lines, on their vote to certify the RFFA petition.
Then Thursday, in a 5-to-2 decision, the state’s high court directed the board to certify the citizen-led petition. This came just one day before the deadline to certify the ballot.,
The Board of Canvassers will meet once again Friday morning to certify the petition. If they agree, the proposal to legalize abortion will be on the ballot in Michigan this November.
