Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act

S.B. 147  Sen. Cameron Brown
S.B. 148   Sen. John Pappageorge
H.B. 4212  Rep. Joel Sheltrown
H.B. 4213  Rep. Kim Meltzer

Current Status

S.B. 147, 148 were introduced on January 29, 2009 and referred to theCommittee on Health Policy. H.B. 4212, 4213 were introduced on February 10, 2009 and referred to the House Committee on Judiciary.

Description

This legislation makes it a felony when a physician or any other individual performs a partial birth abortion, except to save the life of the mother, or if the mother's life is "endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury."

The state has an interest in protecting the health and lives of its citizens. This bill will charge a physician or authorized staff who performs a PBA and kills a human baby while it is being born, with a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than two years or a fine of not more than $50,000 or both.

This bill is to coincide with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling which upheld the Partial Birth Abortion Ban, Gonzales v. Carhart on April 18, 2007. Having a state law in place is necessary to provide for responsive enforcement, instead of having to rely on federal enforcement whose resources are overextended.

Background

Time and experience have proven that the procedure known as partial birth abortion poses serious health risks to the mother and to date, has never been medically necessary to preserve the health of the mother. The procedure involves the vaginal birth of the child until the head emerges from its mother. At that point, the child is killed and then delivered dead.

Physicians have an interest in preserving the health and life of both the mother and child. This procedure clearly "confuses the medical, legal and ethical duties of a physician to preserve and promote life." PBA is "broadly disfavored by medical experts" and the public. There is no consensus among obstetricians that it is ever medically necessary because it has never been evaluated as to its medical advantages or disadvantages.

History

S.B. 147,148 is the fifth legislative attempt to ban PBA by prolife Michigan legislators.

Identical bills were introduced last session in both the House and the Senate (H.B. 4613, 5664, S.B. 776, 1049). S.B. 776 passed in the Senate (24-13) on January 22, 2008 and in the House (74-32) on May 27, 2008, only to be vetoed by Governor Jennifer Granholm on June 13, 2008, because it lacked a so called "health" exception.

Governor Granholm vetoed the Legal Birth Definition Act (LBDA), which would essentially outlaw the PBA procedure, on January 15, 2004. So Right to Life of Michigan took it to the people and the LBDA became law effective March 30, 2005 through a Citizen Initiative, only to be ruled unconstitutional in Northland Family Planning v Cox on June 4, 2007. Two other attempts to ban PBA were ruled unconstitutional in 2001 and in 1997. Go to the links below for more details.

For more information:

Legal Birth Definition Act

P.A. 107 of 1999 (pdf)

Partial Birth Abortion Prohibition

P.A. 273 of 1996