Right to Life of Michigan says it’s about halfway to its goal of collecting 400,000 signatures on a petition to ban an abortion procedure known as dilation and evacuation.
Dilation and evacuation is a later term abortion procedure used in less than 10% of abortions, according to a report from the House Fiscal Agency.
If Right to Life of Michigan can gather roughly 340,000 signatures their ban of the procedure could be approved by the legislature without needing to pass through the Governor’s desk.
Chris Gast is with Right to Life of Michigan.
“The goal is not to appear on the ballot, its to initiate it in the legislature and then with majority votes in the Michigan house and senate it becomes law,” he said. “Since we’ve already sent the bill through the legislature and both the house and senate have voted for it we know we have the votes.”
Gast said even if the legislation is passed it would likely be taken to court - meaning it could be some time before it would take effect.
“Our position is that it’s a very barbaric procedure,” he said. “We think most people don’t support late term abortions but they certainly don’t support such a barbaric procedure.”
The ban would subject any doctor who conducts the procedure to a $50,000 fine. The ban includes an exception if a mothers life was in danger but not for cases of rape or incest.
A spokesperson for Planned Parenthood of Michigan said in a statement that “given the chance, voters would overwhelmingly reject this policy” They called the petition an “end-run around the Democratic process.”
A spokesperson for the ACLU of Michigan said the group is "surveying all of its options to comabt this (petition)." If the petition does pass into law the spokesperson said "there will be a legal challenge."