LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Senate voted along party lines Wednesday to repeal state law's broad abortion ban that dates back to the 1840s, placing the change one step closer to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's signature.
In the November election, voters in Michigan approved a constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights, so the policy in question had already been largely nullified. But Democratic lawmakers who hold majorities in the House and Senate vowed to take the abortion law off the books, and Sen. Erika Geiss, D-Taylor, said their actions followed the will of the people.
"The people demand it," Geiss said during a speech in the Senate chamber. "It is the floor of what we must do. But do it we must.
"There's no reason to transport women's rights and the reproductive health of all Michiganders backwards."
The Senate voted 20-18 for six bills on Wednesday that aim to repeal the state's past abortion ban. The House approved two of the bills last week, meaning they will soon be sent to Whitmer's desk. The other four started in the Senate and still have to be voted on in the House.
The ballot proposal to enshrine abortion rights in the state Constitution passed with 57% support in November, and the debate over the topic was viewed as one of the driving forces that helped Democrats win control of the state Legislature for the first time in 40 years.
Republican senators voiced opposition to the repeal legislation on Wednesday. Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan, agreed the proposals were an endorsement of the sentiment behind the constitutional amendment but said the long-standing law protected life.
"Today, we have the ugly and sad reality of dealing with the tragic flight of our people to call what is repugnant and shocking a fundamental right," McBroom said.
The law in question is often described as Michigan's 1931 abortion ban because that's when it was last updated as part of a larger overhaul of criminal statutes. However, the prohibition originated more than 170 years ago, before the Civil War and before women had the right to vote.
Under the policy, it was a felony for people to administer drugs or use any instrument with the intent "to procure the miscarriage of any such woman, unless the same shall have been necessary to preserve the life of such woman."
The law had largely been dormant for the nearly 50 years the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade ruling cemented abortion rights across the country. However, the law was poised to take effect again with the high court's overturning of Roe in June.
Two separate lawsuits secured court injunctions last year that kept the 1931 law from going into effect until voters' approval of the Reproductive Freedom for All ballot initiative in November.
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Staff Writer Beth LeBlanc contributed.
