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MARC KLOCKOW

Once again, judge rules Michigan prosecutors cannot enforce 1931 abortion ban

By Randiah Camille Green

THE FIGHT OVER Reproductive rights in Michigan continues to unfold like a never-ending soap opera.

On Friday, a Michigan judge ruled county prosecutors cannot enforce the state’s outdated abortion ban from 1931.

Oakland County Circuit Judge Jacob Cunningham issued a preliminary injunction on the abortion law following a temporary restraining order requested from Governor Gretchen Whitmer that was granted by a judge several weeks ago. The restraining order blocked county prosecutors from charging medical providers for performing abortions, and came almost immediately after a Court of Appeals panel ruled prosecutors were exempt from a previous injunction against the ban.

The back and forth has been confusing to say the least.

“The lack of legal clarity about abortion in Michigan has already caused far too much confusion for women who deserve certainty about their health care, and hardworking medical providers who should be able to do their jobs without worrying about being thrown behind bars,” Whitmer said in a statement. “Once, over the course of a single day, abortion was legal in the morning, illegal around lunch time, and legal in the evening.”

Cunningham heard two days of testimony from medical professionals before making his decision on the injunction.

Whitmer filed a lawsuit back in April asking the Michigan Supreme Court to determine whether abortion is protected by the state’s constitution, which is still ongoing.

The extreme 1931 law makes no exceptions for rape or incest and only permits abortion in cases where the life of the mother is at stake. Roe v. Wade had effectively canceled out the law, but it was never taken off the books. Now that the landmark Roe case had been overturned by the conservative U.S. Supreme Court, Michigan officials are scrambling to prevent the old law from being enforced.

“We can’t expect doctors to read the minds of a prosecutor and to try to figure out what a prosecutor thinks that life-saving exception means. That is precisely what would happen if the preliminary injunction is not issued,” Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit said during closing arguments Thursday, according to Crain’s Detroit Business.

Meanwhile, an anti-abortion group filed a claim on Thursday to disqualify the Reproductive Freedom for All amendment from the November ballot because the petition is missing spaces between several words.

The ballot measure would enshrine abortion rights into the state’s constitution if adopted by voters in the November election.

Citizens Supporting Michigan Women and Children is asking the Board of State Canvassers not to certify the initiative. The group claims the petition is “filled with 43 serious errors.”

The errors in question on the petition include text like “DECISIONSABOUTALLMATTERSRELATINGTOPREGNANCY” and “INCLUDINGBUTNOTLIMITEDTOPRENATALCARE.”

“The text of the amendment is filled with run-on words that are incomprehensible, making an already confusing amendment impossible to understand,” Christen Pollo, spokesperson for Citizens Supporting Michigan Women and Children, said in a statement. “Amending the constitution is serious business, and these people didn’t take it seriously enough even to proofread their own language.”

Though some words do appear to be squished together, it’s hardly incomprehensible with a little common sense. Reproductive Freedom for All turned in a record 753,759 signatures for the petition, errors and all, in July. Only about 452,000 signatures were needed to get the amendment on the November ballot.

Attorneys for Citizens Supporting Michigan Women and Children wrote “the nonexistent words cannot become part of the Michigan Constitution because they are not text,” Crain’s reported.

The board is scheduled to meet on Aug. 31 to further consider the issue.

Belle Isle Aquarium finally has an octopus, and they need help naming him

By Lee DeVito

THE OLDEST AQUARIUM in the country has a new eight-legged resident.

Detroit’s Albert Kahn-designed Belle Isle Aquarium celebrated its 10th anniversary since reopening and its 118th birthday on Thursday by unveiling its new octopus tank. According to the Belle Isle Conservancy, it’s the only public aquarium in Michigan to have one.

Belle Isle Aquarium director Summer Ritner said guests have shown a lot of interest in the creatures over the years.

“Guests continually ask if we have an octopus at the Aquarium,” she said in a statement. “I’m sure this addition will become a favorite of visitors and school groups for years to come.”

The octopus doesn’t have a name yet. Over the next week, guests can submit name ideas on the Belle Isle Conservancy Instagram account, @belleisleaquarium. (According to a publicist, the octopus is a boy.)

The tank was donated by Jon Cotton, who said he was inspired by visiting the Houston Zoo as a child.

This year, the aquarium also welcomed new additions including garden eels and the endangered axolotl, a Mexican salamander.

The Belle Isle Aquarium is open from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday-Sunday. Admission is free. More information is available at belleisleconservancy.org.

SHUTTERSTOCK

Opinion: I’m a former Republican. What happened to Michigan’s GOP?

By Reavis Graham

I’M HAVING DÉJA vu after this month’s primary. Last summer, after our Republican-led state senate found no fraud in the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump said, “The Senate ‘investigation’ of the election is a coverup.” He then called Detroit the “most corrupt election city in the U.S.”

Since then, he has made it his mission to take revenge on our state, endorsing more than 20 candidates up and down the ballot. In return, these candidates endorse similar baseless claims about the 2020 election and other anti-democratic conspiracies.

I don’t recognize our state’s GOP anymore. Not too long ago, I campaigned for Rick Snyder and his non-partisan and transparent leadership. It pains me to say it, but as a lifelong conservative, I cannot support Republican candidates who are out of touch with reality.

Regardless of how you feel about Trump, these candidates are too focused on an old election to focus on delivering results. Michigan has serious problems, and we need leaders who look toward the future, not through a rearview mirror.

It’s hard to know where to start with our menu of GOP candidates. At the top of the ticket for governor, Tudor Dixon wants you to think she is a moderate conservative. But don’t be fooled. The real Dixon is dangerous and extreme.

Two days after receiving Trump’s endorsement, Dixon wouldn’t answer whether she believed the election was stolen. However, during May and July debates, she confidently said that she believed Trump won the 2020 election in Michigan and the country. In 2021, she suggested that a left-wing group was involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection and tweeted, “Steal an election then hide behind calls for unity and leftists lap it up.”

Dixon previously said she was pro-life with no exceptions for rape, incest, or the mother’s life. She now claims to advocate exceptions for a mother’s life but still said last month that a 14-year-old victim of incestual rape was a “perfect example” of prohibiting abortion.

She has taken up other far-right crusades, supporting a “Don’t Say Gay” bill, speaking at anti-vaccine rallies, waging war with drag queens, and claiming Gov. Gretchen Whitmer intentionally released COVID-19 into nursing homes. At an anti-public safety protest, Dixon said Whitmer “has a Gestapo to come by for her,” referencing the secret police of Nazi Germany.

Kristina Karamo is running for secretary of state. I’ll admit, I don’t know everything that the secretary of state does, but, clearly, based upon her background and comments, Karamo has no business holding this office. Trump has taken an interest in this race because this office is in charge of election administration. Until last year, Karamo was an unknown poll worker who began appearing on Fox News to claim that illegal ballots were tallied at the former TCF Center in Detroit. Karamo believes Trump won the 2020 election and, this month, shared a link to a post that claimed Trump already won 2024 and will restore “justice against the enemies of America.”

Karamo supports QAnon and other far-right conspiracies. She claimed that anyone who supports reproductive rights “must worship Satan.” Karamo even attacked Ariana Grande for putting children “under a satanic delusion,” blamed Beyoncé for leading “Black Americans into paganism,” and called Jay-Z a “Satanist.”

Lastly, Matt DePerno is running for attorney general. He is one of the biggest proponents of Stop the Steal, meeting with Trump on Jan. 6, appearing at Capitol rallies calling for a “forensic audit,” and leading the conspiracy-laden and ultimately failed litigation effort that sought to overturn Antrim County’s election. This month, DePerno was named in a criminal investigation of alleged voting machine tampering.

As attorney general, DePerno says he will prosecute women and their doctors — with no exceptions — for seeking abortions. As a lawyer, DePerno was fired from his firm for padding client billings, investigated for legal malpractice, and accused of assaulting a client.

It’s time to move on from the 2020 election, but that’s hard to do with candidates that all have taken up the crusade against our elections, elected officials, the rule of law, and democracy. We should all recognize that there is a cost to this craziness, and that cost is a lack of leadership that’s focused on fixing real issues. If we want responsible leadership in Lansing, then voting for candidates who are true public servants, even Democrats, is the only option.

Reavis Graham is a former Republican from Milford.

He wanted a race war. Instead, Michigan man gets 20 years in prison.

By Steve Neavling

THE LEADER OF a white supremacist group was sentenced to 56 months to 20 years in the slammer for terrorizing a Dexter family, the Michigan Attorney General’s Office said Thursday.

Justen Watkins is the self-proclaimed leader of The Base, a pro-Hitler movement that advocates for a race war against non-white people with the goal of using violence “to overthrow the existing social and political order,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Watkins and Alfred Gorman were charged in October 2020 for terrorizing a family in Dexter. The men targeted

WASHTENAW COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

what they mistakenly believed was a home owned by Daniel Harper, a podcaster who combats white nationalism on “I Don’t Speak German.”

The home was owned by a man with the same name, but not the podcaster.

In September 2019, a U.S. Army soldier in Kansas was arrested on accusations of providing instructions online about how to build bombs to burn down Harper’s house.

“I refuse to allow domestic terrorists to incite violence against our residents and communities,” said Nessel. “I am proud to work alongside law enforcement agencies at the local, state and federal levels to safeguard the public from these serious threats and gratified to see justice served.”

Watkins was also sentenced to 32 months in prison in May for conspiring to train for a civil war. In that case, Watkins, Gorman, and Tristan Webb broke into the vacant Michigan Department of Corrections Camp Tuscola annex and Tuscola Residential ReEntry Program in Caro in October 2020 and stealing state-issued clothing from one of the jails.

Prosecutors allege they were scoping the site as potential training grounds for “hate camps,” which is the name the group gave its paramilitary firearms training exercises.