(MPRN) Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a repeal of the state’s defunct 1931 abortion ban Wednesday. The ban came close to taking effect last summer after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
A series of court challenges staved it off until voters approved an abortion rights constitutional amendment in November.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer said the ban still presented a threat as long as it remained on the books.
“During the conversation around these laws, I was asked often about this ‘trigger law’ and I had to explain, ‘No, no, no.’ This is not a trigger law. This is a zombie law. This predates Roe and is at threat of coming back to haunt us all.”
Democratic Representative Laurie Pohutsky—who sponsored the repeal—agrees that the constitutional amendment was not the end of the story.
"Rather than admit that the passage of Prop Three stood as a clear mandate from Michiganders that wanted this draconian law repealed, opponents began to assert that this law’s purpose was actually to protect pregnant people and that repealing it would actually leave no protections in place," she said.
Groups opposed to abortion rights, such as Right to Life of Michigan called the repeal a “dark day for women in our state.”
The repeal marks the last of six early priorities Democratic legislative leadership outlined earlier this year to receive the governor’s signature.