PONTIAC, Mich. — An Oakland County judge ruled Friday that county prosecutors cannot enforce the state's 1931 abortion law as courts consider a lawsuit brought by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer that seeks to overturn the ban as unconstitutional.
This means abortion will likely remain legal in Michigan until Whitmer's case or a lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood in the Michigan Court of Appeals is fully resolved.
Circuit Court Judge Jacob Cunningham said the harm of allowing prosecutors to criminalize abortions could not be "more real, clear, present and dangerous." The 1931 abortion ban doesn't pass constitutional muster in the state, he said, because weaponizing criminal law against abortion providers goes against due process.
