Five-Year Battle over Informed Consent Law Ends in Pro-Life Victory in Michigan

By Liz Townsend

Michigan's 1993 informed consent law will finally go into effect in mid-September, ending a court battle between the state and pro-abortionists that lasted over five years. Abortion clinics will be required to give women contemplating abortion information about their unborn babies' development and the risks of the procedure at least 24 hours before the abortion is performed, giving the women a chance to consider the consequences of their decision.

Pro-life Michigan Gov. John Engler announced June 14 that the state had settled the lawsuit with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which was representing several abortionists and clinics. The state made some compromises, including allowing the information to be delivered by fax, mail, courier, or over the Internet, but Engler insisted they did not violate the spirit of the law.

"This settlement achieves the intent of the law," said Engler, according to the Detroit Free Press, "which was to enable a woman to make a fully informed decision prior to initiating this serious procedure."

The information will be provided by the Michigan Department of Community Health to abortionists around the state, who must give it to women at least 24 hours before an abortion or face a 90-day jail term or possible license revocation.

U.S. District Court Judge Nancy G. Edmunds approved the terms of the settlement June 17. The law will go into effect 90 days after that date.

"Overall, this was a big victory for us and for the women of our state," Ed Rivet, legislative director of Michigan Right to Life, told NRL News. "I don't feel that we lost anything through the settlement - - the only loss was five and a half years of waiting for the law to go into effect."

Along the way, the lengthy court battle over the law also led to a major victory for pro-lifers: the Michigan Court of Appeals, in overturning a lower court decision that ruled the informed consent law unconstitutional, found that there is no right to abortion in the state constitution.

"In the end, this case harmed the pro-abortion side immeasurably in regard to the status of the 'right' to abortion they insisted was in the state constitution," said Rivet. "And by settling their lawsuit with only minor compromises, they conceded the constitutionality of the statute and undercut their whole claim that any regulation of abortion causes an 'undue burden' to women."

Engler signed the women's right to know law on July 28, 1993, and it was scheduled to go into effect on April 1, 1994. The ACLU and abortion clinics filed suit to block the law in state and federal court on March 10, according to a chronology prepared by Michigan Right to Life. Both U.S. District Court Judge Edmunds and Wayne County Circuit Court Judge John Murphy issued temporary restraining orders blocking the law within two weeks.

Judge Murphy struck down the law on July 15, 1994. According to Murphy's decision, abortion is a "fundamental right" under the Michigan constitution, a right so broad that even regulations that the U.S. Constitution permits, such as the informed consent law approved by the U.S. Supreme Court in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, are unconstitutional in Michigan.

However, the Michigan Court of Appeals strongly disagreed with Judge Murphy's conclusions. The appeals court reversed his decision on October 26, 1998, and declaring that a right to abortion cannot be found in the state constitution.

The state Department of Community Health then began to prepare the information abortionists would be required to distribute. The pamphlet included information on fetal development, abortion procedures, health risks and complications of abortion, and alternatives to abortion.

However, the pro-abortion groups found another way to delay the law's enactment. Judge Edmunds, who had issued a temporary restraining order in federal court, never made a final ruling on the law after it was struck down in state court. Edmunds reinstated her restraining order on February 1, 1999, and legal proceedings began again.

A trial in federal court had been scheduled for August 23, the Detroit News reported. With the approval of the settlement, however, the court battle is finally over.

Many Michigan citizens interviewed by local newspapers thought the law would be positive for women. "There are so many horror stories of women who said if they only had more time to think about it, they might have made a different decision," Deborah Bloomfield, a 48-year-old resident of Wyandotte, told the Detroit News.

"There is a waiting period to buy a gun," Tammy Zmuda of Canton Township told the News. "Maybe this will give women a chance to think about it, to hear the pros and cons and then sleep on it."