Thursday, May 29, 2008

Partial Birth Battle

The Michigan House of Representatives finally held a vote on the partial birth abortion ban, after months of delay. Supposedly pro-life house speaker Andy Dillon had been holding the bill up.

The bill passed 74-32, and a series of pro-abortion amendments were easily rejected. However, the democrats tried to avoid voting on an essential companion bill that establishes penalties for violating the ban on partial birth abortion. Democrats have threatened to shut the house down over this.

Governor Granholm plans to veto the ban. She claims this is because it doesn't have a health exception, which would make it totally unenforceable. The bill passed by a veto-proof majority in the house, but was one vote short of a veto-proof majority in the Senate. Senate democrat leader Mark Schauer, who is running for Congress against Republican Tim Walberg, voted against the bill.

The ban is the same as the federal ban, which was previously held to be constitutional by the Supreme Court. A state-level ban is also necessary because there is no chance that the federal ban will be enforced if democrats control the executive branch.

See RightMichigan's summary of the issue and Jack Hoogendyk's live-blogging of the debate.
House Dem obstruction on partial birth abortion ban threatens to shut down chamber!
Jack Hoogendyk's Live-blog (scroll down)

No comments: