Michigan Prolife Legislation Update

The legislators are back for the fall session and our Michigan prolife legislation is moving! We have already had some successes. To ensure that we have more success, we are depending on the prolife citizens of the state to contact their legislators with letters and phone calls to voice their support for prolife legislation.

Both the Michigan House and the Senate passed the supplemental budget bill with $200,000 to fund the college project. This project would create an on-campus office on two university and two community college campuses that would provide pregnant and parenting students with information about available resources to help them carry their baby to term and stay in school. Unfortunately, Governor Engler line-item vetoed this money out of the budget. However, Rep. Mickey Mortimer (R-65) intends to look for other ways to find money to fund this project. Even if money is not available in the state budget to fund this project, we will still try to pass the authorizing bill whose lead sponsor is Rep. Pat Lockwood (D-51). This bill outlines the criteria for the office and creates the fund which allows for private donations as well as government monies.

The Senate has passed S.B. 346, a bill to close the loophole in the Prenatal Protection Act on the civil side of the law. Sen. Bill Van Regenmorter (R-22) introduced this bill to allow for the double prosecution of assailants who murder pregnant women and as a result, also kill the child in utero. The language in the original bill did not account for situations in which both the mother and child are killed. The House still must vote on S.B. 346.

The House Family and Children Services Committee has now held two hearings on H.B. 4655, the Family Planning Funding bill. This bill is sponsored by Rep. Mark Jansen (R-72). It creates a priority system in the way that family planning funds are distributed so that those healthcare facilities that provide family planning services without providing abortion and abortion advocacy will be first in line to receive family planning funds. A vote has not yet been taken on this bill when the RLM News went to print. Legislators in both the House and Senate need to hear of support for H.B. 4655 from their constituents.

Rep. Steve Ehardt (R-83) has re-introduced the Healthcare Conscientious Objector bill. This bill, H.B. 5158, would allow healthcare providers, students, and researchers to opt out of performing morally objectionable procedures with an advance written directive to their employer or instructor. A committee hearing will be held on this bill in the House Health Policy Committee in the middle of October. Letters and phone calls should be made to both the House and Senate in support of this bill.

For more information on prolife legislation, visit the Right to Life of Michigan web site, www.rtl.org, and "click" on Legislation. Or call the RLM Legislative Office at (517) 487-3376.

 

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