Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said today that she won’t prosecute violations of a dormant Michigan law that criminalizes abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court reverses the Roe v Wade decision.
Nessel said during an online news conference that she has the discretion to decide which cases her office will prosecute, and she won’t devote resources to prosecuting abortion cases if Roe v Wade is overturned.
“Don’t bother bringing ‘em to my office because we’re not going to authorize those.”
But Nessel said local prosecutors have the same discretion in their jurisdictions and she has no authority to stop them from filing charges in their counties.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer has filed a lawsuit challenging Michigan’s 1931 abortion ban, which is among the strictest in the country.
She has asked the Michigan Supreme Court to preemptively declare that abortion rights are protected under privacy and due process clauses in the state constitution.