Michigan's Legal Birth Definition Act should be ruled constitutional because the law does not ban all abortions, state Attorney General Mike Cox (R) said in an opinion released on Monday, the AP/Detroit Free Press reports (Bailey, AP/Detroit Free Press, 4/5). The American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Reproductive Rights and Planned Parenthood Federation of America on March 1 filed suit in federal court to prevent enforcement of the law, which would change the legal definition of birth to the first moment any part of a fetus is outside a woman's body and is showing signs of life. The measure, which became law in June 2004 and would ban so-called "partial-birth" abortion in the state, had been scheduled to take effect on March 30, but U.S. District Judge Denise Page Hood last month approved a temporary restraining order preventing the law from being enforced until June 15 because of the federal challenge (Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, 3/16).

Opinion Details
Cox in his opinion said that the law does not place restrictions on "actions taken before an anatomical part of an intact, live fetus passes beyond the plane of the vaginal introitus of the mother's body." Cox said that the law only would ban "intact dilation and extraction" abortion -- also known as D&X -- when it is "performed on a legally born person," according to the AP/Free Press. Cox said, "The physician must look to ensure the life or physical health of the mother without harming the (fetus) where medically possible," adding, "These considerations do not, however, prevent a physician from performing a procedure that may directly harm or kill the (fetus) where in the medical judgment of the physician it is necessary to safeguard the mother's life or health." A Cox spokesperson said the attorney general's opinion is "binding in the absence of a court decision," according to the AP/Free Press. However, Wendy Wagenheim, a spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, said that Cox's opinion is not binding on the courts and that the law should be ruled unconstitutional because it would ban all abortions and does not provide exceptions for the health of pregnant women, according to the AP/Free Press. Wagenheim said, "The legislators are interfering with the best practices of physicians who have their patients at heart," adding, "The courts are pretty clear that a woman's health is paramount, and this is just inadequate" (AP/Detroit Free Press, 4/5).