Whitmer Caught Without A Plan: Local Prosecutors Can Enforce Michigan’s Pre-Roe Abortion Ban, Court Rules

Whitmer Caught Without A Plan: Local Prosecutors Can Enforce Michigan’s Pre-Roe Abortion Ban, Court Rules

Laurel Duggan on August 2, 2022

The Michigan Court of Appeals determined that county prosecutors can enforce the state’s 1931 abortion ban Monday despite Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s pledge to keep abortion legal.

Whitmer sued in April to overturn the 1931 law, which she claims violates the state constitution, and a separate Planned Parenthood lawsuit resulted in a temporary injunction barring state authorities from enforcing the law, according to Axios. But the temporary injunction against the abortion ban doesn’t apply to county prosecutors, the Court of Appeals ruled, meaning the state’s abortion ban can be enforced at the local level.

Whitmer said she would repeal the abortion ban in 2018 during her gubernatorial campaign and began tweeting about the issue frequently after the Supreme Court took up the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case in 2021. Whitmer insisted abortion was still legal in Michigan four separate times after the court granted a temporary injunction against the ban.

When I said I’d fight like hell for abortion rights, I meant it. I’ve:

✅Filed a lawsuit to keep abortion legal

✅Directed state departments to protect reproductive healthcare

✅Called for repeal of Michigan’s abortion ban

That was just in the last 2 months & I’m not stopping

— Governor Gretchen Whitmer (@GovWhitmer) June 7, 2022

The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade June 24, ending the precedent which had prevented Michigan’s abortion ban from being enforced for 50 years.

Following the court ruling allowing county prosecutors to enforce the abortion ban, a county judge placed a restraining order on prosecutors in counties with abortion providers to block enforcement pending a Wednesday hearing, the Associated Press reported. Conservative prosecutors in at least two counties plan to enforce the abortion ban, according to the AP.

Seven county prosecutors pledged not to enforce the abortion ban in a joint public statement, and the state’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, also said she wouldn’t enforce the law.

Whitmer did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.