GOP-led Michigan Senate votes to outlaw common abortion procedure

The Republican-led Michigan Senate on Tuesday reportedly voted to ban an abortion procedure that women typically receive during the second trimester of a pregnancy. 

The upper chamber passed a two-bill package in a 22-16 vote along party lines that bars physicians from performing a procedure known as evacuation and dilation, according to local news outlets.

{mosads}If it becomes law, the measure would expand the state’s partial-birth abortion ban to include the dilation and evacuation procedure, The Detroit News reported, adding that physicians who perform the procedure could face a maximum two-year prison sentence and a $50,000 fine. Women would reportedly be allowed to receive the procedure if their life is in danger.

The newspaper, citing the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), noted that the dilation and evacuation method is the most common abortion procedure women receive after 13 weeks of a pregnancy. 

“[It] is evidence-based and medically preferred because it results in the fewest complications for women compared to alternative procedures,” ACOG said in a statement in 2015. 

More than 1,700 dilation and evacuation abortions were reported to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services in 2017, according to The Detroit News.

But Right to Life Michigan and abortion opponents have argued that the procedure is unnecessarily cruel, according to the newspaper, which added that state Sen. Kim LaSata (R), a sponsor of one of the bills, said that the legislation criminalized “the cruel and brutal procedure known as late-term dismemberment.”

Democrats, meanwhile, argued that the law would ban one of the safest options available to women who may need an abortion in the second trimester of their pregnancies, the newspaper noted. 

“Not only is this legislation dangerous to the health and well-being of women, it infringes on the rights of families,” State Sen. Winnie Brinks (D) said, according to MLive.com. 

The Michigan State Medical Society has reportedly come out against the legislation, calling it a form of “interference that would hinder physician discretion to act within the standards of good medical practice and the best interest of the patient.”

The GOP-led House is expected to vote on similar legislation on Tuesday. 

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) has vowed to veto any legislation banning abortions. In April, she said she would “never prosecute a woman, or her doctor, for making the difficult decision to terminate a pregnancy.”