Dormant for half a century until the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the federal right to an abortion, Michigan's 1931 abortion ban sputtered back into life this summer. But a judge there snuffed it out Wednesday, finding that it broke the state constitution.
"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," [Judge Elizabeth] Gleicher of the Court of Claims wrote. "Michigan's Constitution forbids this violation of due process."
Michigan's Supreme Court is currently weighing wether to allow a referendum on adding abortion rights to the state constitution. A petition with the requisite number of signatures was handed in, but quibbles over the letter spacing on the petition gave conservative officials the excuse they needed to block the vote.
