Editorial: 'Heartbeat' bill just another assault on women's rights to make medical decisions

Battle Creek Enquirer (Michigan)
Editorial: 'Heartbeat' bill just another assault on women's rights to make medical decisions
Jun. 14, 2014

A group of 16 male lawmakers last week renewed the assault on a woman’s right to make her own medical decisions, introducing a package of bills that would virtually ban abortions Michigan. They are horrible bills that should be defeated.

We’ve grown accustomed to, if weary of, the GOP-controlled Legislature advancing efforts that compromise a woman’s legal right have an abortion, but the latest effort is especially egregious.

The lawmakers, led by state Rep. Thomas Hooker, R-Byron Center, introduced fetal heartbeat abortion bills that would effectively ban the procedure after the sixth week of pregnancy. If passed, Michigan would have among the earliest — and most stringent — abortion restrictions in the nation.

It says a lot that not even Right to Life of Michigan can get behind two of the three bills that would make it a crime to perform an abortion after a heartbeat is detected....

MORE at http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20140614/OPINION01/306140015/Editorial-Heartbeat-bill-just-another-assault-women-s-rights-make-medical-decisions