When the Michigan legislature passed a bill Thursday banning the procedure its opponents call partial-birth abortion, people in Michigan were left scratching their heads because the procedure has been illegal in the United States for five years.
State Rep. Brian Palmer (R-Romeo) said he sponsored the bill to ensure the procedure would be illegal in Michigan even if the federal law was altered or repealed.
“This is a duplicate of the federal law, so they can’t challenge it,” he said.
State Rep. Pam Byrnes (D-Chelsea) voted against the bill and said it wasn’t necessary to ban the procedure in Michigan.
“This procedure has not been performed in several years,” Byrnes said. “This is a totally divisive political issue and we’re not really accomplishing anything with it.”
Byrnes said she believed the ban was brought to the legislature as a political maneuver, forcing lawmakers to take a position on the matter.
Many pro-life lawmakers remained silent on a ban of the controversial procedure until Right to Life of Michigan, which advocates pro-life legislation, threatened to revoke endorsements of pro-life candidates who were not also opposed to partial birth abortion.
Margy Long, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood in Ann Arbor, said she viewed the bill as an unnecessary political tactic.
“This (procedure) isn’t really done in Michigan,” she said. “This was really about forcing the legislature to vote so that Right to Life could get people on record to know who to get on their hit list for the election.”
State Rep. Richard LeBlanc (D-Westland), who supported the bill, said many legislators were reluctant to vote on it because the procedure is so controversial.
“There was intense pressure from individuals and Right to Life so that people could be on record as being one way or the other,” he said. “I was surprised that it would become an issue for the state to resolve.”
Palmer said he’s been advocating a Michigan ban of the procedure since 2003. He said the state Democratic House leadership did everything it could to stop the bill from coming to a vote.
“They threw everything but the kitchen sink at us,” he said.
Under the legislation, a doctor who performs the procedure would serve up to two years in prison and be fined up to $50,000. There are exceptions for physicians who believe the procedure is necessary to save the mother’s life, but there isn’t an exception allowing the procedure if the doctor believed it would preserve the mother’s health.