Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is asking a judge to reconsider part of an earlier ruling on abortion rights and strike down a law that requires clinics to screen patients on whether they are being pressured to end a pregnancy.
Abortion rights advocates prevailed on most of the questions in a decision issued in May by Michigan Court of Claims Judge Sima Patel.
Patel struck down mandatory waiting periods, a mandatory informed consent form, and a ban on advanced practice clinicians — who work under a doctor’s supervision — handling abortion care. Patel ruled those restrictions violate the 2022 reproductive rights amendment to the Michigan Constitution.
But Patel left standing a 1978 law that requires providers to screen patients for coercion. She held that requirement does not present an undue burden on abortion access. In a filing this week, Nessel asked the judge to also strike down the screening requirement as unconstitutional.
The Democratic attorney general argued that requirement is designed to dissuade patients from terminating a pregnancy and said Patel should also strike down mandatory screening as a violation of the reproductive rights amendment.
In a statement sent by her office, Nessel said the screening requirement for abortion care is inconsistent with consent requirements in Michigan for other medical procedures.
“Women wishing to continue their pregnancy, those seeking management for a miscarriage, and men pursuing a vasectomy all may do so without this level of state interference,” Nessel said. “Michigan residents and their healthcare providers deserve the same freedom when it comes to the deeply personal decision to have an abortion.”
If Patel refuses, that could set the case on a path to the Michigan Court of Appeals and the Michigan Supreme Court.
