LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – After delaying a vote for more than a month, the Michigan House was forced to amend several bills regarding abortion in order to have enough Democrat support to pass them.
Similar to a House Health Policy Committee meeting for September, a lone Democrat, Representative Karen Whitsett (D-Detroit) would not budge on allowing bills that would have removed the 24-hour waiting period for an abortion, and allowed Medicaid funds for people who have an abortion. Both stipulations were removed from the bill package ahead of the vote.
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In a statement from abortion rights supporters including Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan, they called the revisions “a watered-down version of the Reproductive Health Act.”
“Without eliminating the Medicaid abortion ban and the 24-hour mandated delay, access to abortion care will remain out of reach for too many across our state,” the statement said. “Barriers like these make abortion care more difficult to access and often have a disproportionate impact on Black and brown people, people working to make ends meet, rural residents, and other marginalized communities.”
Within the bill package, now there will not be a requirement for abortion clinics to be licensed as surgical centers.
Representative Andrew Beeler (R-Port Huron) previously criticized the bills, saying they would permit the “most barbaric practices.”
“Democrats are allowing for the most barbaric practices related to abortion, none of which the voters consented to in Proposal 3,” Rep. Beeler said in a statement. “Pro-life and pro-choice Michiganders support common-sense licensure, inspections, and reporting for abortion facilities, but this extreme legislation would eliminate these medical standards.”
“To make matters worse, they want to funnel taxpayer dollars to fund abortions — even at unsafe, unsanitary facilities. This extreme, unpopular agenda undermines the health, safety, and decency of Michiganders,” he added.
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Representative Whitsett, the Majority Vice Chair on the Health Policy Committee, opposed several of the bills in the package when in committee, previously sharing that a vote on Medicaid abortions was “not gonna happen.”
She also spoke about the state’s 24-hour waiting period, “I do not think it is too much to ask when someone’s terminating a life, a 24-hour pause to be able to say for sure this is the decision you want to make. 24 hours is not too much.”
On Halloween, Governor Gretchen Whitmer used her X (formerly known as Twitter) account to share holiday themed political messages.
“Earlier this year we came together to solve a very scary problem—slaying the state’s abortion ban, a ‘zombie’ law that had been on the books since 1931,” she said on the social media platform later adding, “Unfortunately, other frightening laws surrounding abortion still remain. TRAP laws target healthcare providers with unnecessary, politically motivated regulations that do nothing to protect patients. It’s time for them to bite the dust.”
The bills next head to the Senate for consideration.
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