Letter: Women deserve the facts about abortion before choosing it

The Detroit News has reported heavily on a preliminary injunction from Michigan Court of Claims Judge Sima Patel in 2024 that blocked certain abortion regulations in Michigan, namely the state’s 24-hour waiting period, informed consent and that the practice of abortion is limited to licensed physicians. The lawsuit was brought by Michigan abortion provider Renee Chelian, who owns Northland Family Planning Centers where abortions are performed through the 6th month of fetal gestation, against Attorney General Dana Nessel.

A final ruling is expected soon.

I have attended the hearings. Ultimately the challenge to the remaining post-Proposal 3 abortion regulations is based on a denial of what or who is killed in abortion procedures.

Under the informed consent law as it used to be understood, women who make an abortion appointment must be given informed consent materials 24 hours prior to the performance of the procedure. Witnesses consistently characterized the informed consent documents as “irrelevant and inaccurate” even though the documents came from the Center for Disease Control.

During a Feb. 18 hearing, one witness actually compared unborn children to an appendix and a tumor. The informed consent documents include drawings of unborn children at various stages of development.

It is ludicrous to propose there is no difference between an unborn child and a tumor being removed.

Women have a right to know that the abortion procedure kills something. They have a right to know the full facts that what is killed in abortion has a heart, a brain, a spinal column, hands, feet, arms, legs — has a face and has a gender — unlike an appendix and a tumor.

Considering the seriousness of the abortion decision, these regulations were far from burdensome and hardly irrelevant. Rather they are reasonable and helpful to women, unless of course you think all that is being aborted has no more status or value than a pathological tumor.

Monica Migliorino Miller, Ph. D.

Dir. of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society