Newsbriefs: Prolife Legislation

Protecting life one bill at time

Michigan's state legislators are in their summer recess, but when they return they'll finish their work on some important pieces of prolife legislation.

One piece of legislation, the Legal Birth Definition Act (LBDA) is an effort to draw a line in the sand for when abortion ends and infanticide begins by declaring birth and the commencement of legal rights when any portion of an unborn child's body is vaginally delivered outside the mother's body. The LBDA will redefine legal birth so that once any part of a child is visibly outside the mother, that child will be considered a legal person. This legislation, if passed, will effectively make partial-birth abortion illegal in the state of Michigan.

This legislation has passed both the House and Senate by wide margins. The Senate still needs to concur with some amendments added in the House before the LBDA is sent to Governor Granholm. Governor Granholm is expected to veto this legislation, but prolife Senators and Representatives hope to overturn her veto.

Another piece of prolife legislation deals with parental rights. In 1990, Michigan passed a law requiring minors to obtain the consent of their parents before getting an abortion. In order for this law to hold up in court, Michigan legislators had to include an option that allows teens to try to get a judicial bypass waiver from a judge. If a judge grants the bypass waiver, teens can get an abortion without their parent's knowledge or consent. In 2002, judges in 97% of 507 cases dealing with the bypass waiver found that the child seeking an abortion was mature and informed enough to make the decision to have an abortion or that it was in the teen's best interest not to tell her parents.

William O'Neil (D-Allen Park) introduced H.B. 4478 because he feared that the judicial bypass has become almost a rubber stamp with many girls looking for and finding judges who are in favor of abortion. H.B. 4478 hopes to provide specific standards and criteria for the judges who decide these cases and appoint an attorney to represent the interests of the parents.

H.B. 4478 passed the House by a vote of 73-32 on June 24. The Senate is likely to vote on this legislation in the fall. Governor Granholm opposes the current language of the bill, but prolife legislators again hope they will be able to gather enough votes for a veto override.

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