Abortion bill headed back to state Legislature
Detroit Free Press
Thursday, May 27, 2004
By Dawson Bell LANSING - For the third time in a decade Michigan is on the verge of banning the abortion procedure its opponents call partial birth abortion. A state elections panel Thursday morning certified more than 446,000 signatures on petitions designed to enact the ban without Gov. Jennifer Granholm's signature. The campaign, called the People's Override, needed signatures from 254,206 registered voters to send the veto-proof law to the Legislature. The petition drive, conducted entirely by volunteers recruited by Right to Life of Michigan and the Michigan Catholic Conference and other church and family values groups, was a "slam dunk," in the words of RTL's lobbyist Ed Rivet. But enactment of the ban faces the same uncertainty as two earlier partial birth bans, passed by the Legislature and signed by former Gov. John Engler. Both were struck down by federal courts as overbroad. The ACLU will file a third lawsuit as soon as the Legislature acts on the petitions certified Thursday, its representatives said. Legislative leaders said they expect to do take a vote, and expect easy approval, in early June.
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