Judge in Mich. strikes down 91-year-old law that banned abortions
DETROIT — A judge Wednesday struck down Michigan’s 1931 anti-abortion law, months after suspending it, the latest development over abortion rights in a state where the issue is being argued in courtrooms and, possibly, at the ballot box.
The law, which was long dormant before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, violates the Michigan Constitution, said Judge Elizabeth Gleicher.
“A law denying safe, routine medical care not only denies women of their ability to control their bodies and their lives — it denies them of their dignity,” Gleicher of the Court of Claims wrote. “Michigan’s Constitution forbids this violation of due process.”
The decision comes as the Michigan Supreme Court is considering whether to place a proposed amendment on the Nov. 8 ballot that would add abortion rights to the state Constitution. A Friday deadline is looming.
Supporters submitted over 700,000 signatures, easily clearing the threshold. But a tie vote by the Board of State Canvassers over spacing issues on the petition has kept it off the ballot so far.
In the case handled by Gleicher, the 1931 law makes it a crime to perform abortions unless the life of the mother is in danger.
The judge said the law “compels motherhood” and prevents a woman from determining the “shape of her present and future life.”
The law “forces a pregnant woman to forgo her reproductive choices and to instead serve as ‘an involuntary vessel entitled to no more respect than other forms of collectively owned property,’ ” Gleicher wrote, quoting constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe.
The law was suspended in May with an injunction, following a lawsuit by Planned Parenthood of Michigan. Gleicher said her latest decision applies to all state and local prosecutors.
An appeal by the Republican-controlled Legislature is possible.
Bannon’s legal woes: Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, said Tuesday that he expects to be charged soon in a state criminal case in New York City.
Bannon, 68, plans to turn himself in Thursday, according to a person familiar with
the matter who insisted on anonymity.
The Washington Post, citing anonymous sources, reported that the state criminal case would resemble an earlier attempted federal prosecution, in which Bannon was accused of duping donors who gave money to fund a wall on the U.S. southern border.
That federal case ended abruptly, before trial, when Trump pardoned Bannon.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined comment late Tuesday.
In a statement, Bannon said District Attorney Alvin Bragg “has now decided to pursue phony charges against me 60 days before the midterm election,” accusing the Democratic prosecutor of targeting him because he and his radio show are popular among Trump’s Republican supporters.
UK politics: New U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss told Parliament on Wednesday that she would tackle Britain’s “very serious” energy
crisis while still slashing taxes, ruling out imposing a windfall levy on oil companies to pay for her plans to offset the soaring cost of heating and electricity.
Truss rebuffed opposition calls for a new windfall tax, even as she refrained from explaining how to fund a plan meant to help the public pay energy bills soaring because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the economic aftershocks of COVID-19 and Brexit.
She said during her first session of prime minister’s
questions that she would set out a plan on Thursday to help with the immediate prices crisis so that people “are able to get through this winter,” as well as measures to bolster Britain’s longterm energy security.
But on a windfall tax, she added “it is the wrong thing to be putting companies off investing in the United Kingdom just when we need to be growing the economy.”
British media reported Truss plans to cap energy bills. The cost to taxpayers could reach $116 billion.