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Illegal to break up with a pregnant girlfriend?

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I didn't believe a blog that said that the Michigan House had passed a bill making it illegal to break up with a pregnant girlfriend, if one were doing so because one wanted her to get an abortion and she did not want the abortion. So, I started to read house bill 5882...

The relevant part starts off with this:

(3) A person who has actual knowledge that a female individual is pregnant shall not do any of the following with the intent to compel a pregnant female to seek an abortion: a) Commit or attempt to commit an act proscribed under section 81, 81a, 83, 84, 86, or 411h against the pregnant female or a family or household member.
One cannot threaten a girlfriend or wife with violence if she is refusing to get an abortion (I don't think such a law should be on the books, because it ought to be illegal to make such threat of violence anyway). After this, it gets more egregious...
B) File or attempt to file for a divorce from the pregnant female.

c) Withdraw or attempt to withdraw financial support from the pregnant female that had previously been supplied or offered to the pregnant female.

d) Change or attempt to change an existing housing or cohabitation arrangement with the pregnant female.

That is pretty bad.
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Yikes!

I'd almost like to see that pass, just to see what Michiganders and the courts would do with it. Almost.

Looks like it was referred to the Senate committee on health policy in early August and hasn't moved since aside from a fiscal impact survey issued in mid-November.

The session ends at the end of the calendar year. I can't find Michigan's rules on whether bills in committee survive from one session to the next, but I suspect they do not.

-Q

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I can't find Michigan's rules on whether bills in committee survive from one session to the next, but I suspect they do not.
If that's the case, I guess it'll go away (for now), because the GOP lost control of the state legislature in the 2006 election.
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I am hard to shock: I am shocked.

Come live here for a while. ;) Between the auto unions stangle-hold on the big three, and Dick DeVos on the other side of the state, whose dad coined the term "compassionate conservativism", it's a pretty interesting mix. My hardest vote this year was the governorship.

The state is only blue because of Flint-Detroit. The rest of the state is red.

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If that's the case, I guess it'll go away (for now), because the GOP lost control of the state legislature in the 2006 election.

I'm not too sure the dems would be much opposed to it, which is what worries me about it. It's package-dealed with the assault provisions, and I think they'd look at it as the mother-to-be deserving of some special protection as a particularly vulnerable subset of society. The dems love to make special rules for special subsets. Nonetheless, I think it's effectively dead.

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Here's a list of organizations that were for and against the bill. From the opposition from ACLU, NOW and Planned Psrenthood, I assumed that strong Democratic constituencies would object aginst the bill. Further, while it seems that there's no record of who voted each way, it was about 65:45 in the house, and it's my guess that most of the Nays were Democrats, so if they're in the majority now, the odds are it will probably not pass.

The following organizations testified in or indicated support for the bills:

  • Michigan Catholic Conference (5-10-06)
  • Operation Outcry (5-24-06)
  • Rachel's Vineyard (5-10-06)
  • Right to Life of Michigan (5-10-06)
  • Mother and Unborn Baby Care, Inc. (5-10-06)
  • Anchor of Hope (5-10-06)

The following organizations testified in or indicated opposition to the bills:

  • American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists/Michigan Section (5-24-06)
  • Michigan Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence (5-24-06)
  • Michigan Domestic Violence Prevention and Treatment Board (5-10-06)
  • Batterer Intervention Services Coalition of Michigan (BISC-MI) (5-10-06)
  • Family Law Section – State Bar of Michigan (HB 5882) (5-10-06)
  • Michigan NOW (5-10-06)
  • Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Michigan (5-24-06)
  • MARAL Pro-Choice Michigan (5-24-06)
  • American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan (5-24-06)

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It is 100% a woman's decision to have a child, so it SHOULD NOT be illegal for a man to break up with his pregnant girlfriend. Wow, what is the world coming to?!?

If the woman decides to have the child against the man's wishes, I don't believe he should have to support the child either, especially if he will not have anything to do with raising the child.

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