Lansing Update: June 18, 2012
Posted June 18, 2012
In This Week’s Lansing Update:
Michigan House of Representatives Passes Landmark Pro-Life Legislation
The Michigan House of Representatives last Thursday, June 14, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, 70-39, legislation that will address documented abortion clinic abuses and put in place measures to protect the health and safety of women who follow the path of abortion. Michigan Catholic Conference is asking for messages of support to those members who voted in support of the bill, which can be sent by following the "What We're Asking" information below.
Click here to watch a YouTube video of Michigan Catholic Conference speaking to the details of the bill, House Bill 5711.
"The primary purpose for this legislation is to create safeguards for women in Michigan and to remedy egregious abortion clinic abuses recently addressed by a Senate subcommittee hearing," said Michigan Catholic Conference Policy Advocate Rebecca Mastee in a news release following the passage of House Bill 5711. "Democrats and Republicans who voted in support of this legislation are to be commended and applauded for standing up for what's right and for recognizing the need for common sense measures to protect women."
Measures included in House Bill 5711 include:
- Requiring abortionists with a history of medical licensure violations or history of multiple civil lawsuits for causing injury from abortions to carry a minimum amount of malpractice insurance or equivalent security,
- Changing the standard for when an abortion facility must be licensed as an outpatient surgical facility, which would license 28 of the 32 abortion clinics that remain unlicensed (many of them have never been inspected),
- Prescribing humane disposition of fetal remains from abortions and adjust protocols for handling miscarriages and stillbirths,
- Providing materials and screening protocols to identify women who are being coerced into seeking an abortion, and require an anti-coercion sign to be posed in abortion clinics, and
- Requiring FDA approved protocols for use of the "abortion pill" (RU-486) and prohibiting remote use of RU-486 through "webcam" consultation, a practice that the abortion industry introduced in Iowa in 2008.
What We're Asking:
- Please click here to find out, if you don't already know, who your state representative is.
- Click here [Link no longer available —Ed.] to see how your state representative voted on House Bill 5711.
- Locate your state representative's contact information by clicking here and emailing he or she with a note of thanks if they voted in support of the legislation. You may use a version of the following message: "Thank you very much for voting in support of House Bill 5711. This legislation will help to protect the health and safety of all women in Michigan."
- If you engage in Facebook, please also place a similar note of thanks on your state representative's page.
- Pray that the Michigan Legislature will continue to vote in support of the dignity and sanctity of human life and the health and safety of all women throughout the state.
Thank you for your attention to this critical legislation, and for your efforts to applaud the elected officials who stand strong in support of the unborn and the women of Michigan!