Michigan House Panel OKs Bill Making It Crime To Coerce An Abortion
LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Pressuring a woman to have an abortion against her will would be a criminal act under legislation advancing in the Michigan Legislature.
A Republican-controlled House committee voted 5-3 along party lines Tuesday to send two bills to the full House.
The legislation would prohibit threatening, stalking or assaulting a pregnant woman with the intent to force an abortion against her wishes. After learning a woman doesn't want to terminate her pregnancy, a person also couldn't threaten to cut off legally required financial support.
Democrats, who have called the bills redundant, opposed them after Republicans rejected attempts to also make it a crime to coerce a woman to stay pregnant against her will.
Similar legislation won approval in the Senate last year but died at the end of the session.
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