The US state of Michigan on Wednesday officially repealed the state ban on abortion that dated from 1931 and that punished the doctor who carried out this voluntary termination of pregnancy with up to four years unless the woman’s life was in danger.
With the signature of Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, the bill repealing that ban was signed into law and removed from state law the previous law that criminalized abortion.
That 1931 law lay dormant for decades after the US Supreme Court authorized abortion rights at the federal level in 1973 with its ” Roe v. Wade ” ruling.
However, after the highest court in the country revoked its ruling of 73 on June 24, 2022, the debate was opened again on the validity of that state regulation.
Last September, the Michigan Court of Appeals declared that 1931 criminal abortion ban unconstitutional and issued a permanent injunction barring the attorney general and county attorneys from enforcing that veto.
With its decision, which took effect immediately, the state court reaffirmed that the 1931 veto was “wholly unconstitutional because its application would deprive pregnant women of their right to bodily integrity and autonomy and equal protection under the law.”.
But the regulation in question had not yet been eliminated from state legislation, something that the state Congress made possible on March 10 and that now comes into force with the signature of the governor.
In Michigan, in the Midwestern United States, its citizens voted in the midterm elections last November to include abortion rights in the state Constitution in such a way as to shield it from future conservative attempts to eliminate it.
The Planned Parenthood organization, which defends high-quality affordable medical and reproductive care in the country, told EFE this Wednesday that since the Supreme Court ruling on June 18, 50 states have banned abortion in the US or have severely restricted it, and in 13, access to this service is practically impossible, although there are exceptions.
