Judge declares Michigan’s abortion law unconstitutional

In a ruling dated Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Denise Page Hood in Detroit ruled the Legal Birth Definition Act places an “undue burden” on women’s right to choose.

Hood said the law is confusing and vague, and its exceptions for the health or life of a mother are meaningless and unconstitutional.

“The act does not describe any specific procedure to be banned,” Hood wrote. “The act also does not distinguish between induced abortion and pregnancy loss.”

Parties in the lawsuit learned of the ruling late Wednesday when it was obtained by the Detroit Free Press. It was not immediately clear why the parties were not notified of the ruling.

Proponents of the law said they were attempting to ban a procedure they call “partial-birth” abortion. Previous attempts by state lawmakers to stop the abortion procedure were struck down by federal courts in 1997 and 2001.

Doctors label the practice “intact dilation and extraction,” or D&X. During the procedure, generally performed in the second trimester, a fetus is partially removed from the womb and the skull punctured. Some doctors say it is the safest option for women in some circumstances.

Hood agreed with abortion rights groups that argued the law would ban all pre-viable abortions, including “dilation and evacuation,” or D&E, the most common method of second-trimester abortion.

Wendy Wagenheim, a spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, said the law would have banned virtually all abortion, including those in the first trimester.

According to the ACLU, as of August 2004, at least 31 states had enacted bans on “partial-birth” abortions. The laws have been struck down in at least 20 states, the organization said.

The Michigan Catholic Conference said it disagrees with the judge’s ruling and will urge Attorney General Mike Cox to appeal.

The state Legislature approved a law attempting to ban the procedure in June 2004. Hundreds of thousands of voters signed petitions that allowed the bill to become law with only the approval of the House and Senate — both of which are controlled by Republicans — after Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm vetoed it.

Since similar laws have been struck elsewhere, anti-abortion advocates tried a new approach with the Michigan ban.

Rather than name the procedure specifically, the law defined birth as the moment any portion of the fetus emerges from a woman’s body, making the fetus a legally born person under the law. A doctor could not do D&X unless it was necessary to save the mother’s life or to avoid an “imminent threat” to her physical health.

In 2003, President Bush signed the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, but it was not enforced because of legal challenges.

Also Wednesday, Missouri lawmakers gave final approval to a bill aimed at discouraging abortions by imposing new restrictions on physicians and allowing lawsuits against people who help teens get abortions without parental consent.

The bill will become law as soon as Republican Gov. Matt Blunt signs it. Planned Parenthood and a Springfield abortion clinic both pledged to quickly file lawsuits against it.