Republicans in House, Senate pass anti-abortion bills after emotional debate

May 15-- May 15--The GOP-led Legislature's straight party line votes on Tuesday to ban an abortion procedure performed in the second trimester, sets up a promised veto from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer -- and an expected ballot proposal to get around the governor's move from Michigan Right to Life.

Republicans in the state Senate and House of Representatives passed the bills seeking to criminalize the dilation and evacuation procedure amid a national trend of GOP-led legislatures trying to restrict access to abortion as the U.S. Supreme Court grows more conservative.

The so-called D&E procedure ban bills are just two of many bills introduced around the nation that are severely restricting -- and even banning in the case of Alabama -- access to abortion. Three of the bills, from Alabama, Louisiana and Indiana, already are awaiting a decision on whether the U.S. Supreme Court will take up the cases.

The House and Senate bills -- HB 4320-4321 and SB 229-230 -- would ban dilation and evacuation abortions, and would include criminal sentences for doctors who perform them of two years in prison.

The vote -- 22-16 in the Senate and 58-51 in the House with all Republicans supporting and Democrats opposing -- came after emotional testimony on both sides of the issue. Republicans called the procedure gruesome and barbaric.

"If we're talking about providing mercy to these babies because of the suffering they might face ... then it must be a life," said Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan. "And if it's a life, how can we justify snuffing it out."

Rep. Diana Farrington, R-Utica, said the procedure "desensitizes us. It makes us less human. We treat dogs with more respect."

But Democrats told stories of women who faced the incredibly difficult decision to end wanted pregnancies because of severe medical issues of the fetus and said that dilation and evacuation often was the safest option for women.

"Nearly 99% of abortions occur before 21 weeks, but when they are needed later in pregnancy, it is often in very complex circumstances, the kinds of situations where a woman and her doctor need every medical option available," said Sen. Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids. "In fact, abortions later in pregnancy often involve rare, severe fetal abnormalities, and serious risks to women's health."

Sen. Erika Geiss, D-Taylor, said government should not be interfering in the decisions made by women and their doctors.

"I can stand here and call out the hypocrisy of predominantly male legislators -- most of whom, with zero medical background -- who somehow decided when they took office that they are medical experts and experts of women's bodies and health care," said Sen. Erika Geiss, D-Taylor.

And Rep. Lori Stone, D-Warren, said that banning the procedure would be risking the future fertility of women.

"Just because you're offended by medical procedure doesn't give you the right to put the lives of Michigan's women at risk," she said. "Keep your laws off my uterus, vagina and ovaries."

The debate brought up intensely personal stories on both sides of the abortion issue.

Sen. Kim LaSata, R-St. Joseph, told of her attempted abortion of a daughter who doctors said would not be medically viable. In what she considered divine intervention, the abortion failed and she later delivered a stillborn baby.

"I would like to think that it's a small part of God looking out for me," she said. "Until the day abortion is made illegal, I will fight for those unborn babies. ... You should allow God to take over and deliver that baby and it shouldn't be made easier for you."

But Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, D-Livonia, recalled an abusive relationship that resulted in a pregnancy scare that would have been disastrous.

"One of the most egregious aspects of this bill is that there are no provision for rape or incest. As a survivor of rape, this is simply unacceptable," she said. "There are consequences to the decisions that we make here. And I'm not sharing this story for sympathy. ... It is important because it is evidently far too easy for us to forget about the consequences when we can't put a name or a face to them. So I am here to be that face."

Of the 26,594 abortions performed in Michigan in 2017, 1,777 were D&E abortions, in which a woman's uterus is dilated and the fetus is removed with a clamp. Republicans refer to the procedure as "dismemberment abortion." But doctors with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists testified that the procedure is safe and the medically necessary alternative for some abortions.

Even though the bills got support from all legislative Republicans, it probably won't become law in Michigan, at least in the near future.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, an East Lansing Democrat, has pledged to veto any bills that restrict access to abortion.

"I'm going to veto them when they come to my desk," she said. "These are decisions that should be made between a woman and her doctor. I've always supported a woman's autonomy and freedom to make her own choices, and that should be no surprise to anyone in this town."

She elaborated last month during a speech at a Planned Parenthood conference in Lansing: "We cannot for one second watch what's just happened in Ohio, or in Georgia (where so called "heartbeat laws," which criminalized any abortion when a fetal heartbeat can be detected, were signed into law), and think that couldn't happen in Michigan. But you've got a powerful backstop in a veto from my office."

If the bills are passed and Whitmer vetoes them, Michigan Right to Life is likely to embark on a petition drive for a citizen-led legislative initiative to gather enough signatures and bypass the governor to get the bill passed into law. The anti-abortion organization has gone that route four times in the last 32 years and gotten laws onto the books, including: banning public funds from being used to pay for abortions for welfare recipients in 1987; requiring parental consent before a minor can get an abortion in 1990; defining a legal birth in 2004; and in 2013 requiring women to purchase an additional rider on their health insurance if they want to have coverage for an abortion.

Genevieve Marnon, legislative director for Right to Life, said it's a shame that Whitmer stands poised to veto the bill.

"We always hope that she will change her mind, but we've been prepared to go around governors' vetoes in the past and we're prepared to do it again," she said. "But we always wait to see if, at the last minute, she will have a change of heart."

In Michigan, four additional anti-abortion bills have been introduced so far this year:

-- SB 165: Would ban abortions past 20 weeks and impose sanctions of up to 15 years in prison and a $7,500 fine for doctors performing the procedure.

-- HB 4322: Would prohibit the state from contracting for services with any agency that provides abortions.

-- HB 4416-4417: Would require more reporting requirements to the state from abortion providers, including extensive reports from a medical examiner or any person with knowledge of a woman who has experienced medical complications or died after having an abortion.

Conversely, another six bills -- SB 50, 52-53 and HB 4113, 4115-4116 -- from abortion rights supporters in the state House and Senate have been introduced that would repeal the 1931 law that makes abortion illegal in Michigan.

These bills have been introduced to ensure that abortion remains legal and available in Michigan if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. But they are not expected to get a hearing or a vote in the Republican-controlled Legislature.

In 30 states, bills have been introduced that would outright ban abortions past six weeks or the D&E procedure, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a New York-based organization that tracks reproductive health policy across the nation.

Implementation of many of the laws has been at least temporarily blocked by legal challenges, and the Supreme Court justices haven't yet decided whether they will hear the three cases before them.

The House and Senate versions of the bills now go to the opposite chambers for reconciliation before heading to Whitmer's desk.

Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430, [email protected] or on Twitter @michpoligal. Staff writer Paul Egan contributed to this report.

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