Gov. Gretchen Whitmer

In response to the Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning of the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade abortion ruling, Governor Gretchen Whitmer is keeping her word that she will “fight like hell to protect every Michigander’s right to make decisions about their own bodies.”

In a series of releases from the Governor’s Office on Friday, Whitmer blasted the Supreme Court decision, while announcing steps she has taken to keep abortion legal in Michigan.

“Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, two years after I was born,” she said in one release. “For half a century, American women have had control over their own bodies. Now, we no longer do. My daughters and all our kids have fewer rights than many of us have had our entire lives.”

She went on to say that a group of what she called “unelected, conservative judges” have overturned Roe v. Wade and stripped reproductive rights from tens of millions of Americans.

“Millions of Americans – our neighbors, family members, and friends – are feeling despair in this moment,” she said. “And while we were warned the decision was coming, it doesn’t make the news any less devastating.”

Under a 1931 Michigan law, health care professionals could be charged with a felony for performing an abortion and Planned Parenthood and independent health clinics in Michigan could be forced to close. Whitmer said that the law would deny women access to birth control, cancer screenings, and other lifesaving care.

“A group of Michigan legislators went even further,” she said, “introducing a bill to enact a 10-year prison sentence for doctors and nurses and a 20-year sentence for anyone manufacturing, selling, or distributing birth control medication.”

Although Whitmer has declared that the 1931 law is unconstitutional, she said she filed the lawsuit against it in April “to ask the Michigan Supreme Court to resolve whether Michigan’s constitution protects the right to an abortion. And after the Roe decision was issued, I filed a motion urging the Supreme Court to immediately consider my lawsuit.”

Whitmer also issued an executive directive instructing state of Michigan departments and agencies to identify opportunities to improve protections for all forms of reproductive health care, such as contraception, long-acting reversible contraception, and emergency contraception.

“The executive directive also instructs departments not to cooperate with or assist authorities of any state in any proceeding or investigation against anyone for obtaining, providing or assisting someone else in obtaining or providing reproductive health care that is legal where the health care is provided,” she added.

On Monday, Whitmer announced she sent a notice to the Michigan Supreme Court urging it to immediately consider her lawsuit to decide if Michigan’s state constitution protects the right to abortion. She sent the notice, she said, because county prosecutors and health providers misunderstood the current legal status of abortion in Michigan.

“While abortion remains legal in Michigan because of an injunction from the Michigan Court of Claims,” she said, “recent events make it clear that the Michigan Supreme Court must expeditiously consider her lawsuit to avoid further confusion.”