Judge strikes down abortion waiting period in Michigan
Judge Sima Patel ruled that the law conflicted with an amendment Michigan voters passed in 2022 enshrining abortion rights into the state's Constitution.
The waiting period existed in Michigan for years, but Patel temporarily blocked it last year, arguing that it 'exacerbates the burdens that patients experience seeking abortion care,' according to The Associated Press.
Michigan abortion providers sued last year to overturn the 24-hour waiting period for patients and to scrap the informed consent law, as well as a law that barred advanced practice clinicians from providing abortions.
Patel, a Court of Claims judge, also reversed a part of the law that required abortion providers to give patients fetal development charts and information on alternatives to abortions, arguing that it also violates the Reproductive Freedom for All constitutional amendment.
She also paused a section of the law that excluded nurses, nurse midwives and physician assistants from providing abortion care.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said she was 'overjoyed' over the judge's decision to overturn the waiting period and informed consent requirements.
'For years, Michiganders have faced obstacles when seeking reproductive care. From a 24-hour waiting period before accessing abortion to a ban on advanced practice clinicians providing care, these rules have put politicians between a woman and her doctor,' Witmer wrote in a post on social platform X.
'I'm overjoyed to say that the Michigan Court of Claims has seen these restrictive provisions for what they are: an unconstitutional overreach that infringes on our constitutional right to make our own reproductive health decisions,' she added.
Meanwhile, anti-abortion groups in the state admonished Patel for her ruling, arguing that it poses an 'immediate threat' to women's health across the state.
'Abortion is the only medical procedure of its kind in which the patient now is expected to go in blind,' Amber Roseboom, president of the Right to Life of Michigan, wrote in a statement.
'There is no question that women are at greater risk when they enter an abortion clinic in Michigan today than they were even a few years ago,' the group added.
The risk of complications from an abortion remains extremely low. Research shows that about 2 percent of abortions involve some type of complication.
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