Michigan’s ‘Partial-Birth’ Abortion Ban Awaits Governor’s Likely Signature

Huffington Post: Michigan Legislature Passes 'Partial-Birth' Abortion Ban, by Laura Bassett:  

WASHINGTON -- Michigan lawmakers passed legislation last week that will ban "partial-birth" abortions, which have been federally outlawed since 2007 and have not occurred on record since then.

The state-level ban -- sponsored by Republicans -- is modeled almost exactly after the federal ban that George W. Bush signed in 2003 and that the Supreme Court upheld in 2007. Doctors who perform the procedure, in which the fetus is partially delivered before being aborted, would face up to two years in jail and a $50,000 fine unless they can prove the mother's life is in danger. Democratic opponents of the measure tried to amend it to include exceptions for cases of rape or damage to a woman's health, but those proposals were voted down. . . .