By Ben Solis
Gongwer News Service
Arguments challenging Michigan’s 24-hour waiting period for abortions and other statutory abortion regulations will commence this week, setting the stage for a lawsuit that’s been brewing since voters enshrined reproductive rights into the state Constitution.
The Court of Claims will hear trial arguments in Northland Family Planning Center v. Nessel (COC Docket No. 24-000011) beginning Thursday and ending Tuesday, February 18. A break in action is scheduled between the two dates to accommodate state offices being closed for Presidents Day on Monday, February 17.
The lawsuit asserts that although the Reproductive Health Act passed by the Legislature in 2023 repealed many of state’s abortion restrictions, it left some in place.
Those still-existing restrictions include a law mandating that abortion patients wait a minimum of 24 hours after an appointment before they can receive an abortion; a law forcing clinicians to dispense and patients to consume what the lawsuit called biased counseling before and after the 24-hour waiting period; and a prohibition on qualified advanced practice clinicians providing abortion care.
The crux of the complaint is that the three challenged statutory restrictions crafted by the Legislature are unconstitutional because voters passed Proposal 2022-3, amending the Constitution to ensure reproductive health care access.
Northland Family Planning Center and Medical Students for Choice filed suit against the statutes in February 2024, shortly after which Attorney General Dana Nessel said she would not oppose a preliminary injunction in the matter.
Nessel was named as the defendant in Northland but the attorney general supported the plaintiffs’ position from the outset. Because the state is obligated to defend its laws in court, the department’s attorneys are representing Michigan. It also filed an interlocutory on behalf of the state challenge to Judge Sima Patel’s previous grant of a preliminary injunction in the Court of Appeals.
A Court of Appeals panel denied the request to stay the preliminary injunction and proceedings before the Court of Claims in August shortly after it was filed.
The plaintiffs are being represented by Molly Duane, senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Oral arguments will commence in person and begin on 8:30 a.m. Thursday in Detroit branch of the Court of Claims.
Gongwer News Service
Arguments challenging Michigan’s 24-hour waiting period for abortions and other statutory abortion regulations will commence this week, setting the stage for a lawsuit that’s been brewing since voters enshrined reproductive rights into the state Constitution.
The Court of Claims will hear trial arguments in Northland Family Planning Center v. Nessel (COC Docket No. 24-000011) beginning Thursday and ending Tuesday, February 18. A break in action is scheduled between the two dates to accommodate state offices being closed for Presidents Day on Monday, February 17.
The lawsuit asserts that although the Reproductive Health Act passed by the Legislature in 2023 repealed many of state’s abortion restrictions, it left some in place.
Those still-existing restrictions include a law mandating that abortion patients wait a minimum of 24 hours after an appointment before they can receive an abortion; a law forcing clinicians to dispense and patients to consume what the lawsuit called biased counseling before and after the 24-hour waiting period; and a prohibition on qualified advanced practice clinicians providing abortion care.
The crux of the complaint is that the three challenged statutory restrictions crafted by the Legislature are unconstitutional because voters passed Proposal 2022-3, amending the Constitution to ensure reproductive health care access.
Northland Family Planning Center and Medical Students for Choice filed suit against the statutes in February 2024, shortly after which Attorney General Dana Nessel said she would not oppose a preliminary injunction in the matter.
Nessel was named as the defendant in Northland but the attorney general supported the plaintiffs’ position from the outset. Because the state is obligated to defend its laws in court, the department’s attorneys are representing Michigan. It also filed an interlocutory on behalf of the state challenge to Judge Sima Patel’s previous grant of a preliminary injunction in the Court of Appeals.
A Court of Appeals panel denied the request to stay the preliminary injunction and proceedings before the Court of Claims in August shortly after it was filed.
The plaintiffs are being represented by Molly Duane, senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Oral arguments will commence in person and begin on 8:30 a.m. Thursday in Detroit branch of the Court of Claims.
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