University hospital pledges to keep performing abortions

The University of Michigan and Michigan Medicine released a statement on Friday committing to providing abortion services following the Supreme Court overruling Roe v. Wade. 

“U-M Health remains committed to providing high-quality, safe reproductive care for patients, across all their reproductive health needs. This includes abortion care, which remains legal in Michigan,” the statement reads.

However, the university hospital is set to undergo legal challenges as Michigan has a 1931 law on the books that would make administering an abortion a felony in the state. 

For now, the ban is temporarily suspended via a preliminary injunction from May. The injunction was granted after Planned Parenthood of Michigan sued claiming that the law was unconstitutional. 

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“Today’s lawsuit argues that the ban violates the rights to liberty, bodily integrity, equal protection, and privacy under the Michigan Constitution and state civil rights laws, and that the law is constitutionally vague,” a Planned Parenthood press release stated.

The injunction is likely to be challenged in court now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade. 

Campus Reform reached out to Michigan Medicine and was directed to the school’s statement of support for abortion access:

“The University of Michigan and Michigan Medicine remain committed to providing high quality, safe reproductive care for patients, across all their reproductive health needs,” the statement reads. 

Justice Alito wrote the Dobbs majority opinion, stating, “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely—the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

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Lousiana was also set to enforce its trigger ban on abortion after the Supreme Court ruling, but a judge placed a temporary hold on the law after abortion providers claimed it is a constitutional violation. 

“Absent an injunction, The Notice, as interpreted by Defendants, will force some patients to delay abortion care for weeks or even months and force others to carry pregnancies to term against their will, in the middle of a pandemic, all in violation of patients’ fundamental constitutional right to abortion,” the lawsuit stated.

A hearing has been set for July 8. 

Campus Reform reached out to every university and organization mentioned in this article for comment, but has not received responses thus far. This article will be updated accordingly. 

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