Whitmer Answers Questions About Lawsuit Filed To Protect Abortion Rights In Michigan

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(CBS DETROIT) - Whitmer joined leadership at Wacker as well as state and local officials for a ribbon cutting and tour of their new North American Headquarters and state-of-the-art R&D lab in Ann Arbor.

At the event, Gov. Whitmer answered questions about a lawsuit she filed with the Michigan Supreme Court on the topic of abortion.

Here's the Q & A:

Q: You filed your lawsuit in Oakland and made your request to the state Supreme Court. While you're waiting for that to play out, to get an answer, how do you prepare for, the administration prepare for what might be coming out of the Supreme Court?

A: Well, at this juncture abortion is still safe and it's still legal in Michigan. But I am gonna pull out all the stops to make sure that women in Michigan have agency over their bodies and their healthcare decisions. And that's why I filed that lawsuit. So we'll continue to work with stakeholders but ultimately it's my great hope that our State Supreme Court takes the case and delivers an opinion that Michigan women have these rights under our state Constitution.

Q: The legislature looks like it's ramping up to send you a lot of stuff denying Medicaid funding to any clinic that also offers abortion ... how do you plan to deal with all of that?

A: Well, as they are doing their work on the budget, then we will get to a point where we get to negotiate and certainly at that juncture, we'll make sure that we come up with a budget that funds the - makes the investments, whether its in education or closing the skills gap or infrastructure - that we need to make, you know, you'll see the final product then. These culture wars that sometimes they push in budgets very rarely have the effect of anything because they put them in boilerplate and they're not - it's not law.

Q: You'll veto?

A: I don't have to veto. If it's unconstitutional, it's unconstitutional. I'm not weighing in on any particular item at this juncture, I'm just saying we've seen that in the past and I wouldn't be surprised to see that in the future.