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Whitmer says she'll 'fight like hell to protect abortion' in wake of report of Supreme Court vote

By Jack Nissen
Published  May 3, 2022 6:18am EDT
Gretchen Whitmer
FOX 2 Detroit

What happens to Michigan's abortion laws if federal statue Roe V Wade is overturned?

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has sued to protect abortion access and state Attorney General Dana Nessel says she will not enforce the state's current ban if the federal law legalizing the practice is overturned.

(FOX 2) - In the hours following reports that the Supreme Court will overturn the prevailing federal law that legalizes abortion in the U.S., Michigan's governor called her work "more important than ever."

"I'll fight like hell to protect abortion access," Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wrote on Twitter, hours after the news site Politico reported that a leaked draft opinion authored by the country's high court would overrule the Roe V. Wade decision.

Whitmer's tweet was also connected to an April post she made about her plan to protect abortion access in Michigan. In that, Whitmer said she would file a lawsuit to overturn Michigan's own ban on abortion, a 1931-era law that was never repealed but instead overruled by the federal statute in 1973.

"If Roe is overturned, abortion could become illegal in Michigan in nearly any circumstance—including in cases of rape and incest— and deprive Michigan women of the ability to make critical health care decisions for themselves. This is no longer theoretical: it is reality," Whitmer said in a statement following the early April announcement. 

Michigan's statewide abortion ban outlaws the medical practice without exceptions for rape or incest. If Roe V. Wade is overturned, then the current state law would become the overarching law on abortion within Michigan. 

RELATED: Michigan Gov. Whitmer files lawsuit to overturn state's 1931-era abortion ban

In her lawsuit, Whitmer asks the state Supreme Court to order the 1931 ban unconstitutional while also ruling abortion is a right guaranteed by the state's Constitution.

Several other states have already passed bills that criminalize the practice at certain stages of pregnancy.

In Whitmer's lawsuit, it seeks to protect abortion access under Michigan's Due Process Clause, which provides a right to privacy and bodily autonomy. The governor also argues it violates Michigan's Equal Protection Clause by banning a woman's equal rights.