SALE OF ABORTION DRUGS; REPEAL S.B. 93:
SUMMARY OF INTRODUCED BILL
IN COMMITTEE
Senate Bill 93 (as introduced 2-22-23) (Senate-passed version)
Sponsor: Senator Sarah Anthony
CONTENT
The bill would repeal Section 15 of the Michigan Penal Code, which states any person who advertises, publishes, or sells any pills, powder, drugs or combination of drugs, designed expressly for the use of females for the purpose of procuring an abortion is guilty of a misdemeanor unless the drug or medicine was sold upon the written prescription of a practicing physician, and the dealer or druggist registered certain information pertaining to the purchaser, medicine, and physician in his or her records.
BACKGROUND
In 1973, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Roe v. Wade, in which the Court struck down a Texas law making abortion illegal except when necessary to save the mother's life.[1] Following this decision, the abortion ban under Section 14 of the Michigan Penal Code went dormant. In June 2022, the US Supreme Court issued its opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overruled Roe on the grounds that the US Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and the right is not implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the Fourteenth Amendment.[2] Following the Dobbs decision, Michigan's abortion ban went back into effect; however, a lawsuit was filed seeking to block the enforcement of the law and that lawsuit resulted in a court of claims judge ruling that the abortion ban was unconstitutional.
During the 2022 election cycle, a group called Reproductive Freedom for All circulated petitions and collected enough signatures for a proposed constitutional amendment to be placed on the 2022 November general election ballot. The amendment establishes an individual right to reproductive freedom, including the right to make and carry out all decisions about pregnancy, such as prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion, miscarriage management, and infertility; allows the State to prohibit abortion after fetal viability unless needed to protect a patient's life or physical or mental health; prohibits State discrimination in enforcement of the right; prohibits the prosecution of an individual, or a person helping a pregnant individual, for exercising rights established by the amendment; and invalidates State laws that conflict with the proposed amendment.[3] Proposal 22-3 passed with 56.66% of electors in favor of the proposal.[4]