Michigan State Lawmaker to Propose Changes to State's Prenatal Protection Act

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 09 Feb 2005 - 11:00 PDT


Michigan state Rep Bill Van Regenmorter (R) has said he plans to propose a measure that would amend state law so that a pregnant woman who purposefully participates in a violent act that causes her to miscarry could be charged with a crime, the... Detroit Free Press reports (Hunt Martin, Detroit Free Press, 2/7). The issue arose after a 16-year-old Macomb County, Mich., boy in January was charged with a felony under the state's Prenatal Protection Act for helping end his girlfriend's pregnancy by hitting her in the abdomen with a baseball bat. The girl -- who was six months pregnant at the time and subsequently gave birth to a stillborn infant -- had her boyfriend hit her repeatedly with a 22-inch souvenir bat over a two-week period in an attempt to terminate the pregnancy. However, under the Michigan law, while a person who intentionally harms a pregnant woman is criminally liable, an act committed by the pregnant individual cannot be prosecuted (Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, 1/6). Van Regenmorter, author of the state's Prenatal Protection Act, said, "When I wrote it, nobody contemplated the mother cooperatively participating in the beating of herself to kill the unborn child," adding, "We'd simply change the law and under those circumstances, the mother would be chargeable." Miranda Massie, an attorney representing the Macomb County boy, said that Van Regenmorter's changes likely would violate the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that struck down state abortion bans, according to the Free Press. "The basic freedom at issue is the freedom to choose to end a pregnancy," Massie said. However, Van Regenmorter said that his proposed changes would include language exempting women who undergo legal abortions and doctors who perform them from prosecution under the Prenatal Protection Act (Detroit Free Press, 2/7).

"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork.org kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/repro The Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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