By Attorney General Dana Nessel
LANSING – The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit yesterday issued an opinion affirming the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan’s dismissal of a lawsuit filed by anti-abortion plaintiffs, including Right to Life of Michigan, which sought to strike down Michigan’s fundamental constitutional right to reproductive freedom under the U.S. Constitution. The Sixth Circuit found that Plaintiffs’ complaint did not contain sufficient allegations to support their standing to sue Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.
“From the start, this lawsuit was a procedurally flawed, meritless, and politically motivated attack on reproductive rights that Michigan voters overwhelmingly supported,” said Attorney General Nessel. “I am relieved that the Court has once again rightly rejected this unfounded challenge. Although a loud faction remains determined to undermine bodily autonomy, the Michigan Constitution guarantees that decisions about your health belong to you. My office will continue to defend the reproductive freedom of Michiganders.”
“Every Michigander deserves the right to make their own decisions about their own bodies,” said Governor Whitmer. “I’m proud of this decision, which protects Proposal 3 and affirms the fundamental right to reproductive freedom in our Constitution. In Michigan, we’ll always fight like hell for your rights.”
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the authority to regulate abortion was left to individual states, triggering a patchwork of highly restrictive laws across the country. In Michigan, this ruling immediately threatened to revive an extreme, decades-old statute that criminalized all abortions except those performed to preserve the life of the pregnant individual. To definitively resolve the issue and safeguard reproductive rights within this state, Michigan voters passed Proposal 3, amending the state Constitution to enshrine a fundamental right to reproductive freedom.
In November 2023, Right to Life of Michigan, along with Republican lawmakers and others opposed to Michiganders’ right to reproductive freedom, filed a federal lawsuit seeking to invalidate and enjoin Article 1, Section 28 of the Michigan Constitution, which became the law following the passage of Proposal 3. The Attorney General, along with the other state Defendants, filed a motion to dismiss in late January 2024. In response, Plaintiffs amended their complaint. In April 2024, the Department filed a reply in support of the Defendants’ motion to dismiss, arguing that Plaintiffs’ amended complaint remained fundamentally flawed and meritless.
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan sided with Defendants, holding that each of the 15 Plaintiffs lacked standing to maintain their claims and dismissing all claims against Defendants. A small subset of Plaintiffs appealed, and the Sixth Circuit yesterday affirmed that opinion.