Yesterday, on the 35th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the Michigan Senate passed a ban on so-called "Partial-Birth" abortion procedures. The bill--which passed by a vote of 24-13--was co-sponsored by West Michigan Senators Bill Hardiman, Mark Jansen, Wayne Kuipers, and Gerald Van Woerkom.

While "partial-birth abortion" is a common term, it is a rhetorical device popularized by the anti-abortion movement to describe a method of abortion known as "Intact Dilation and Extraction." It is not a term that is recognized the American Medical Association. Just as the bill attempts to legitimize the term "Partial-Birth" abortion, the text of the ban makes several dubious claims including:

"...partial-birth abortions pose serious risks to the health of a woman, no credible medical evidence exists that partial-birth abortions are safe, and partial-birth abortions are never medically necessary to preserve the health of the mother."

"...a governmental interest in protecting the life of a child during the delivery process arises because a partial-birth abortion involves the inducement of labor and the beginning of the birth process."

"Partial-birth abortions involve the killing of a child that is in the process of being born, in fact mere inches away from becoming a person. Thus, the government has a heightened interest in protecting the life of a partially born child."

Despite what the bill says, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued a statement last year asserting that there is a "...medical consensus" that intact D&E is safest and offers significant benefits for women suffering from certain conditions that make the potential complications of non-intact D&E especially dangerous." A 2004 study found that the procedure is no more dangerous than other forms of abortion. In addition to questionable assertions about health and the procedure as a whole, the bill also makes rhetorical assumptions that a fetus is "a child."

The bill then goes on to make it a felony to "kill[s] a human fetus." This felony would be punishable by imprisonment of no more than two years and a fine of no more than $50,000. Interestingly, while the bill says that "partial-birth abortions are never medically necessary to preserve the health of the mother" it contains an exception under which a partial-birth abortion is not punishable as a felony if it "...is necessary to save the life of a mother whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury."

For several years, the anti-abortion movement has used the debate over "partial-birth" abortion to win political victories and shift public opinion in support of some bans on abortion. This is the fourth time that the Michigan legislature has sought to ban these abortion procedures. While three previous attempts were struck down by federal courts, this measure was based on a federal ban upheld last year by the Supreme Court. According to supporters of the ban, it is necessary to have a state-level ban in the event that the federal ban is overturned.