Michigan AG responds to lawsuit filed over Prop 3

LANSING, Mich. (WNEM) – The fight over abortion is continuing in Michigan, with the state responding to a lawsuit seeking to overturn Proposal 3.

Proposal 3 was the 2022 ballot proposal that was approved by nearly 60 percent of Michigan voters.

TV5 spoke with Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 30.

Nessel said not only is this a health issue but a concern for democracy, with 2.5 million Michiganders voting for Proposal 3.

“They’re hoping that the judge will issue a restraining order and not permit Prop 3 or the constitutional amendment to be in effect,” Nessel said.

She said on Tuesday, the state filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit that was brought by Right to Life Michigan and other organizations, meeting the deadline to respond.

The complaint was filed against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and Nessel. It seeks to overturn Proposal 3 with a declaration, saying it violates fundamental rights under the U.S. Constitution, along with a court order to cease the implementation and enforcement of the law and an award of attorney’s fees and costs.

Nessel said even though in 2022 the legislature repealed Michigan’s 1931 law that made abortion a felony with no exceptions for rape and incest, there are no guarantees abortion would remain legal.

“It leaves open the fact that this could be further litigated or that a new legislature could come in as early as 2025 and outlaw abortion again. All it takes is one election. We’re always one election away from losing our fundamental rights,” Nessel said.

Her concern is that Michigan could become like other states with abortion bans, places she describes as being desolate of proper care for mothers because doctors face legal consequences for providing certain care and choose to leave those states.

“There are real-world repercussions for those bans on abortion. We are not seeing those same dire sets of circumstances here in the state of Michigan, but if we lose this case, all those things can happen here and that’s a very scary set of circumstances,” she said.

If a judge grants the state’s motion, Right to Life can appeal to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.

If a judge denies the motion, the case moves forward and will be in federal court in western Michigan.

TV5 spoke with Right to Life over the phone on Tuesday as well, and they sent the following statement:

The U.S. Constitution expressly protects the right of the people to enact public policy through their duly elected representatives.  Here proponents of unrestricted abortion used a process where out of state citizens spent millions of dollars to unconstitutionally bypass Michiganders’ right to democratic representative governance.

Prop 3 unconstitutionally deprives parents of their right to direct the upbringing and education of their minor children by excluding parents from decisions regarding the education and medical treatment of their children involving things like abortion and “gender reassignment.”

Michigan’s Proposal 3 followed the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, handing the abortion debate over to individual states.

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