DOE v. DIRECTOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES
Docket No. 116069
Court of Appeals of Michigan
February 19, 1991
187 Mich. App. 493
Submitted February 6, 1990. Leave to appeal sought.
Jane Doe, a minor indigent eligible for medical assistance payments under the state‘s Medicaid program, became pregnant as a result of being raped. Her mother, Nancy Doe, who also was eligible for Medicaid assistance, sought assistance to pay for an abortion for her daughter. The Department of Social Services refused assistance on the basis of the exclusion of
The Court of Appeals held:
Because the state has failed to show a compelling interest to justify the impingement on the right of a woman to terminate her first-trimester pregnancy, the exclusion under
- The Michigan Constitution affords women the right to an abortion. That right is balanced against the established inter-
ests of the state in protecting the health both of pregnant women and of viable unborn children. - The Equal Protection Clause of the Michigan Constitution provides greater protection than the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. A state court is free to read its own state constitution more broadly than the United States Supreme Court reads the United States Constitution, even where the language of the two is identical. It is clear that the Michigan Equal Protection Clause created rights broader in scope than those afforded by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The rights protected under the Fourteenth Amendment already were afforded under the “equal benefit” language of the 1908 Michigan Constitution which was retained when the Equal Protection Clause was adopted in the 1963 Constitution.
- While restrictions adopted by other states to limit Medicaid funding for abortions have been held by the United States Supreme Court not to be violative of rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution,
§ 109a directly impinges on a woman‘s state-protected right to procreative choice by precluding financial assistance to an indigent woman who decides to have a medically necessary abortion while offering her financial assistance if she chooses not to exercise that right and continue the pregnancy to term. - Because
§ 109a directly impinges on the exercise of a fundamental right protected by the Michigan Constitution, the legislation can stand only if the state can show a compelling interest. No such interest has been shown in this case. While a state may impose reasonable procedural conditions as a prerequisite to receiving benefits under a statutorily created program, the state may not impose substantive conditions which burden the exercise of a constitutional right. - The conclusion that
§ 109a is violative of the Equal Protection Clause of the Michigan Constitution is not undermined by the fact that§ 109a was adopted through the initiative process. Although the provisions of a statute adopted through the initiative process may be an expression of public policy, the meaning and effect of a provision of the constitution is not changed by such an expression of public sentiment. - The question presented does not turn on the morality or immorality of abortion or on the wisdom of the legislation; nor does the question turn on whether the state is generally obligated to subsidize the exercise of constitutional rights for those who cannot otherwise afford to do so. Rather, the narrow question is whether the state, having enacted a general pro-
gram to provide services to the poor, may selectively withhold those benefits from otherwise qualified persons solely because of the exercise of the constitutional right of procreative choice.
Reversed and remanded.
SULLIVAN, P.J., dissenting, stated that there is no reason in this case to construe the Equal Protection Clause of the Michigan Constitution more broadly than the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. The United States Supreme Court has held that state limitations on the funding of abortions for Medicaid recipients neither impinges on the right of procreative choice nor denies indigent women of equal protection of law. While
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW — EQUAL PROTECTION — ABORTION — MEDICAID.
The prohibition of the use of Medicaid funds for any abortion not necessary to save the life of the mother violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Michigan Constitution; the denying of Medicaid funds for a medically necessary abortion, while providing Medicaid funds for a pregnancy taken to term, impermissibly impinges on a woman‘s constitutionally protected right to procreative choice (
REFERENCES
Am Jur 2d, Abortion § 1.5; Welfare Laws § 72.6.
Validity of state statutes and regulations limiting or restricting public funding for abortions sought by indigent women. 20 ALR4th 1166.
Elizabeth Gleicher, William H. Goodman, and Paul J. Denenfeld, for the plaintiffs.
Frank J. Kelley, Attorney General, Gay Secor Hardy, Solicitor General, John M. Konwinski and George M. Elworth, Assistant Attorneys General, for the Department of Social Services.
Dykema Gossett (by John B. Curcio, Richard D. McLellan, and Cindy M. Wilder), for intervening defendants.
Amici Curiae
James K. Robinson and Marietta S. Robinson, for the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, et al.
Before: SULLIVAN, P.J., and DOCTOROFF and J. W. FITZGERALD,* JJ.
J. W. FITZGERALD, J. Plaintiffs appeal as of right from the circuit court‘s order granting defendants’ motion for summary disposition pursuant to MCR 2.116(C)(10), dismissing plaintiffs’ complaint for injunctive and declaratory relief, and denying plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction. On appeal, plaintiffs contend the trial judge erred in ruling that 1987 PA 59,
I. INTRODUCTION
According to plaintiffs’ complaint, Jane Doe1 was raped on or about January 15, 1989. At the time, she was a fifteen-year-old resident of this state. Her mother, Nancy Doe, also a Michigan resident, was unemployed, indigent, and a recipient of Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Both plaintiffs were eligible for state medical assistance payments through the State of Michigan‘s Medicaid
* Former Supreme Court justice, sitting on the Court of Appeals by assignment.
As a result of the rape, Jane Doe became pregnant. On or about February 10, 1989, when Jane Doe was in the first trimester of her pregnancy, Nancy Doe sought medical assistance coverage for a therapeutic abortion for her daughter for the following reasons, as stated in the complaint:
5. Due to her age and her underlying medical condition,2 the continuation of her pregnancy to term will entail substantial health risks for Plaintiff Jane Doe. Additionally, due to the cruel circumstances surrounding conception, as well as her age, Plaintiff is emotionally and psychologically unprepared to undergo a term pregnancy and delivery.
6. Although not necessary to save her life, a first trimester abortion is medically necessary to protect the physical and psychological health of Plaintiff Jane Doe.
Nancy Doe was advised that the Department of Social Services would not pay for the abortion pursuant to
Notwithstanding any other provision of this act, an abortion shall not be a service provided with public funds to a recipient of welfare benefits, whether through a program of medical assistance, general assistance, or categorical assistance or through any other type of public aid or assistance program, unless the abortion is necessary to save the life of the mother. It is the policy of this state to prohibit the appropriation of public funds for the purpose of providing an abortion to a person
As a result of the DSS’ refusal, on February 23, 1989, Jane and Nancy Doe filed a complaint against defendants, Patrick Babcock, Director of the DSS, and Kevin Seitz, Director of Medical Services Administration of the DSS, seeking entry both of preliminary and permanent injunctions enjoining the enforcement of
II. MICHIGAN‘S PARTICIPATION IN THE MEDICAID PROGRAM
Title XIX of the federal Social Security Act, as amended,
III. MICHIGAN ABORTION LAW BEFORE AND AFTER ROE V WADE
When Michigan became a medical assistance program participant, three years after the Constitution of 1963 was adopted, neither the federal Social Security Act nor 1966 PA 321 contained an express provision concerning assistance for abortions, whether elective or therapeutic, under the program. Stopczynski v Governor, 92 Mich App 191, 194; 285 NW2d 62 (1979). At that time, the performing or procuring of all elective and some therapeutic abortions was a felony in this state.
In 1972, a panel of this Court considered the constitutionality of one of Michigan‘s abortion statutes,
There is no longer a sufficient state interest to justify continued prosecution of licensed physicians for the mere act of artificially inducing a miscarriage of an unquickened fetus. What state interest there is in the continued protection of the woman
is counterbalanced and offset by the superior right of the woman and her physician to undertake such medical treatment as is deemed appropriate. The question of whether any given woman should be given a therapeutic abortion during the first trimester is a question which is properly addressed to the discretion of the physician in the exercise of his professional duties.
Not only has the present Michigan abortion statute become unproductive of the end for which it was originally intended, i.e., the health and safety of the woman, but it would appear that it has become counter-productive. Since In re Vickers, 371 Mich 114 [123 NW2d 253] (1963), recognized that the woman could not be prosecuted under the present statute for either a self-induced abortion or as an aider and abettor in an abortion performed upon her, the law has, at least to some extent, indicated that the woman has a right to abort. To recognize the woman‘s right to abort and simultaneously deny her the right to seek proper medical aid, except where necessary to preserve her life, does not encourage and promote the health and safety of the woman; but rather, it encourages the woman to place herself in the hands of those not properly skilled. Such an anomaly is not only illogical, but also is fatal to the continued application of the statute. See Beecham v Leahy, 130 Vt 164; 287 A2d 836 (1972). [Id. at 339-341.]
Of particular interest here is the Court‘s acknowledgment of the woman‘s right to possess and control her body:
There can be no question as to the right of the woman to possess and control her body as she sees fit, in the absence of an expressed compelling state interest, for as the Court stated in Union Pacific R Co v Botsford, 141 US 250, 251; 11 S Ct 1000, 1001; 35 L Ed 734, 737 (1891):
“No right is held more sacred, or is more care-
fully guarded, by the common law, than the right of every individual to the possession and control of his own person, free from all restraint or interference of others, unless by clear and unquestionable authority of law.”
See, also, Terry v Ohio, 392 US 1; 88 S Ct 1868; 20 L Ed 2d 889 (1968). The Court in Griswold v Connecticut, 381 US 479; 85 S Ct 1678; 14 L Ed 2d 510 (1965) recognized this right of personal privacy to be constitutionally protected, and, as such, one which could not be encroached upon to any significant extent in the absence of some compelling state interest. [Id. at 340, n 17.]
Although the Court held that a licensed physician was not subject to prosecution for performing an induced, first-trimester abortion in a hospital or appropriate clinical setting, the Court affirmed the defendant‘s conviction under the statute, because he had performed the abortion on the complainant with little or no consultation regarding her state of health and in his office under conditions conducive to inducing infection. Id. at 341-342.
In Bricker, supra at 354, the same panel concluded that the abortion statute was a valid exercise of the state‘s power as it applied to persons not licensed to practice medicine in Michigan, because
the state‘s interest in making medical care by an unlicensed person a criminal act is sufficient to overcome any assertion that the woman has the “right” to seek such medical care (if “medical care” is the appropriate term for the type of unskilled butchery so often practiced by these persons) from anyone she so desires.
The Court of Appeals reasoning in Nixon foreshadowed by mere months the United States Supreme Court‘s decisions in Roe v Wade, 410 US
[T]he State does have an important and legitimate interest in preserving and protecting the health of the pregnant woman, whether she be a resident of the State or a nonresident who seeks medical consultation and treatment there, and that it has still another important and legitimate interest in protecting the potentiality of human life. These interests are separate and distinct. Each grows in substantiality as the woman approaches term and, at a point during pregnancy, each becomes “compelling.” [Id. at 162-163.]
According to Roe, supra at 163, the state‘s interest in the health of the mother becomes compelling when, “in the light of present medical knowledge,” the abortion procedure becomes a health- or life-threatening one. The state‘s interest in the protection of potential life becomes compelling when the fetus has developed the capacity for meaningful life outside of its mother‘s womb, i.e., at the point of “viability.” Id. at 163-164. In concluding that the Texas criminal abortion statute under review, which excepted from criminality only those abortions necessary to save the mother‘s life, was violative of the Due Process Clause of
In Doe v Bolton, supra at 183, the Court considered Georgia‘s less restrictive criminal abortion statute. Consistent with its decision in Roe, the Court rejected the appellants’ argument that a woman‘s right to terminate her pregnancy was absolute and recognized that, although the state had previously focused on the preservation of the woman‘s life, it had “the right to readjust its views and emphases in the light of the advanced knowledge and techniques of the day” in order to protect its interest in the preservation of fetal life. Id. at 189-191. The Court found requirements for approval by only certain accredited hospitals and by two independent physicians, as well as a state residency requirement, violative of the Fourteenth Amendment. Id. at 201.
Bricker, supra, and Nixon, supra,4 reached our
In Larkin v Wayne Prosecutor, 389 Mich 533; 208 NW2d 176 (1973), decided on the same day as Bricker, our Supreme Court recognized the state‘s interest in protecting the life of an unborn, viable child. After finding the criminal abortion statutes,
Any person who shall administer to any woman pregnant with a quick child any medicine, drug or substance whatever, or shall use or employ any instrument or other means, with intent thereby to destroy such child, unless the same shall have been necessary to preserve the life of such mother, shall, in case the death of such child or of such mother be thereby produced, be guilty of manslaughter.
The Court considered the import of the statute‘s purpose in designating its violation as manslaughter:
[Manslaughter] is a serious crime both at common law and under our statutes because manslaughter involves the destruction of viable human life.
There can be no manslaughter of an inanimate object. Neither can manslaughter be predicated upon the destruction of any form of animal life which is not human.
It follows that statutes proscribing manslaughter by abortion are designed to protect human life and carry the necessary implication that that life, the destruction of which is punishable as manslaughter, is human life. [Larkin, supra at 540.]
By using the term “quick child” in
a viable child in the womb of its mother; that is, an unborn child whose heart is beating, who is experiencing electronically measurable brain waves, who is discernably moving, and who is so far developed and matured as to be capable of surviving the trauma of birth with the aid of the usual medical care and facilities available in the community. [Id. at 541-542.]
Leaving the issue of viability as a question of fact for determination in each prosecution under those statutes,5 the Court stated:
By reason of Roe v Wade, we are compelled to rule that as a matter of Federal constitutional law, a fetus is conclusively presumed not to be viable within the first trimester of pregnancy. [Id. at 542.]
IV. THE MICHIGAN CONSTITUTION AFFORDS WOMEN A RIGHT TO ABORTION, AND MICHIGAN HAS ESTABLISHED INTERESTS IN PROTECTING THE HEALTH BOTH OF PREGNANT WOMEN AND OF VIABLE UNBORN CHILDREN
Our review of Michigan statutes and case law concerning abortion leads us to conclude that our state has a strong, long-established interest in protecting the lives and health of its pregnant women, both through the criminalization of abor-
The public health and general welfare of the people of the state are hereby declared to be matters of primary public concern. The legislature shall pass suitable laws for the protection and promotion of the public health.
We also conclude that our constitution affords a right to an abortion. The United States Supreme Court in Roe v Wade recognized that the right to an abortion was one of those rights within constitutionally protected “zones of privacy,” emanating from specific constitutional guarantees. Id. at 152. As Justice Blackmun noted, the Court or individual justices had found at least the origins of the right to personal privacy in the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as in the “penumbras” of the Bill of Rights, see Griswold v Connecticut, 381 US 479, 484-485; 85 S Ct 1678; 14 L Ed 2d 510 (1965).
Our own Supreme Court acknowledged that right under the United States Constitution and also found it to be a right under the Michigan Constitution:
This Court has long recognized privacy to be a highly valued right. De May v Roberts, 46 Mich 160; 9 NW 146 (1881). No one has seriously challenged the existence of a right to privacy in the Michigan Constitution nor does anyone suggest that right to be of any less breadth than the guarantees of the United States Constitution.
Roe v Wade provided an analytical framework within which a woman‘s fundamental right to an abortion, the state‘s interest in protecting the lives and health of its women, and the state‘s interest in protecting the lives and health of its viable, unborn children could be afforded protection commensurate with their weight and significance at a given stage of pregnancy. That weight and significance may change with advances in our understanding of such matters as the point at which a fetus becomes viable, the importance of the mother‘s physical and mental health to the development of the fetus, and the association between the mother‘s mental health and her physical health. We also recognize that, while the rights and interests involved may be competing in some situations, they may also be in accord in others. Thus, in addressing plaintiffs’ claims, our concerns include Jane Doe‘s rights6 to choose the medical treatment
V. SECTION 109a VIOLATES THE EQUAL PROTECTION CLAUSE OF THE MICHIGAN CONSTITUTION
We consider plaintiffs’ claim that
No person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws; nor shall any person be denied the enjoyment of his civil or political rights or be discriminated against in the exercise thereof because of religion, race, color or national origin. The Legislature shall implement this section by appropriate legislation.
As the United States Supreme Court has acknowledged, and we find equally true under our state constitution, the Equal Protection Clause, like the Due Process Clause, “is not susceptible of exact delimitation. No definite rule in respect of either, which automatically will solve the question in specific instances, can be formulated.” Louisville Gas & Electric Co v Coleman, 277 US 32, 37; 48 S Ct 423; 72 L Ed 770 (1928). Although the “equal protection” provision of our constitution is not a clause with precise definition, we recognize it can be violated by legislation that either affects a fundamental interest, as in this case, or creates a suspect classification, and that cannot be justified by any compelling interest of the state. Manistee Bank & Trust Co v McGowan, 394 Mich 655, 668; 232 NW2d 636 (1975). In a case that does not
The circuit court held that
A. MICHIGAN‘S EQUAL PROTECTION CLAUSE PROVIDES GREATER PROTECTION THAN THE FEDERAL EQUAL PROTECTION CLAUSE.
A state court is free to read its own state‘s constitution more broadly than the United States Supreme Court reads the federal constitution, or to reject the mode of analysis used by the United States Supreme Court in favor of a different analysis of the state‘s corresponding constitutional guarantee. City of Mesquite v Aladdin‘s Castle, Inc, 455 US 283, 293; 102 S Ct 1070; 71 L Ed 2d 152 (1982); PruneYard Shopping Center v Robins, 447 US 74, 81; 100 S Ct 2035; 64 L Ed 2d 741 (1980). See also People v Thompson, 424 Mich 118, 125; 379 NW2d 49 (1985). As the Supreme Court of Hawaii explained in State v Kaluna, 55 Hawaii 361, 369, n 6; 520 P2d 51 (1974):
While this results in a divergence of meaning between words which are the same in both the federal and state constitutions, the system of federalism envisaged by the United States Constitution tolerates such divergence where the result is greater protection of individual rights under state law than under federal law.
time the only line of protection of the individual against the excesses of local officials.It is a fiction too long accepted that provisions in state constitutions textually identical to the Bill of Rights were intended to mirror their federal counterpart. The lesson of history is otherwise: the Bill of Rights was based upon the corresponding provisions of the first state constitutions, rather than the reverse. “By the end of the Revolutionary period, the concept of a Bill of Rights had been fully developed in the American system. Eleven of the 13 states (and Vermont as well) had enacted Constitutions to fill in the political gap caused by the overthrow of British authority. . . . [] . . . Eight of the Revolutionary Constitutions were prefaced by Bills of Rights, while four contained guarantees of many of the most important individual rights in the body of their texts. Included in these Revolutionary constitutional provisions were all of the rights that were to be protected in the federal Bill of Rights. By the time of the Treaty of Paris (1783) then, the American inventory of individual rights had been virtually completed and included in the different state Constitutions whether in separate Bills of Rights or the organic texts themselves.” (Italics added.) (1 Schwartz, The Bill of Rights: A Documentary History (1971) p 383; see generally 2 id., p 1204.) . . .
We need not further extend this opinion to trace to their remote origins the historical roots of state constitutional provisions. Yet we have no doubt that such inquiry would confirm our view of the matter. The federal Constitution was designed to guard the states as sovereignties against potential abuses of centralized government; state charters, however, were conceived as the first and at one
Furthermore, we are not breaking new ground in asserting that a provision of our state constitution which is, in relevant part, phraseologically indistinguishable from its federal counterpart, should be construed more broadly than the United States Supreme Court considers appropriate for federal jurisprudential purposes. See Delta Charter Twp v Dinolfo, 419 Mich 253, 276-277, n 7; 351 NW2d 831 (1984) (zoning ordinance limiting occupation of residential property); People v Jackson, 391 Mich 323, 337-338; 217 NW2d 22 (1974) (right to counsel at photographic identification); People v White, 390 Mich 245; 212 NW2d 222 (1973) (constitutionality of same transaction test under Double Jeopardy Clause); People v DenUyl, 318 Mich 645, 650-651; 29 NW2d 284 (1947) (scope of privilege against self-incrimination); People v Victor, 287 Mich 506, 514; 283 NW 666 (1939) (constitutionality of prohibition on giving premiums with sale of gas). See also People v Neumayer, 405 Mich 341, 363, n 16; 275 NW2d 230 (1979). The Michigan Supreme Court has even accorded a more liberal construction to a facially narrower provision of the state constitution. People v Beavers, 393 Mich 554; 227 NW2d 511 (1975), cert den 423 US 878 (1975). Thus, the provisions of the Michigan Constitution may compel a different result, independent of any of the provisions of the federal constitution.
It is a fundamental principle of statutory construction, which generally applies to the construction of the constitution, see Detroit Bd of Ed v Superintendent of Public Instruction, 319 Mich 436; 29 NW2d 902 (1947); Council 23, AFSCME v Wayne Co Civil Service Comm, 32 Mich App 243; 188 NW2d 206 (1971), that every word should be
In Naudzius v Lahr, 253 Mich 216, 222; 234 NW 581 (1931), a decision preceding the adoption of the Constitution of 1963 by thirty-two years, our Supreme Court stated:
The equality of rights protected by our Constitution is the same as that preserved by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution. In re Fox‘s Estate, 154 Mich 5 [117 NW 558 (1908), rev‘d on other grounds 159 Mich 420; 124 NW 60 (1909).]
The Court in Naudzius was dealing with the Constitution of 1908, which contained no equal protection clause equivalent to
All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for their equal benefit, security and protection.
It follows that our Supreme Court considered the “equal benefit” language of that section to import the equal protection principles of the Fourteenth
It would violate basic precepts of constitutional adjudication, as it would under similar circumstances breach the doctrines of statutory construction, to treat the equal protection language of
Furthermore, in cases of doubtful construction of the provisions of the constitution, we may look to the debates of the Constitutional Convention for guidance. Union Steam Pump Sales Co v Secretary of State, 216 Mich 261; 185 NW 353 (1921). In submitting Committee Proposal 26 to the Committee of the Whole on February 1, 1962 (which became
[T]here has been a distinct trend in recent State Constitutions to incorporate equal protection or civil rights clauses to apply to all persons as well as those singled out for special attention because of more apparent discrimination. . . . In short, the incorporation of civil rights provisions is in accord with the contemporary trend in state constitution writing. [Emphasis supplied. 1 Official Record, Constitutional Convention 1961, p 740.]
Relying upon Moore v Spangler, 401 Mich 360; 258 NW2d 34 (1977), Fox v Employment Security Comm, 379 Mich 579, 588; 153 NW2d 644 (1967), and Doster v Estes, 126 Mich App 497, 512; 337 NW2d 549 (1983), the circuit court reached the contrary conclusion advanced by defendants on appeal that Michigan‘s Equal Protection Clause is coextensive with that of the federal constitution. In Moore, supra at 368-370, the plaintiff argued that she had been denied her right to equal protection of the law by the circuit court‘s refusal to allow oral argument on her appeal from the district court, in the face of
This Court has held numerous times that the
Michigan Const 1908, art 2, § 1 , secures the same right of equal protection as does its counterpart in the Constitution of the United States. Gauthier v Campbell, Wyant & Cannon Foundry Company, 360 Mich 510, 514 [104 NW2d 182 (1960)], and cases therein cited. The same provisions inConst 1963, art 1, §§ 1 and2 , must likewise be held to afford the same rights as the Federal equal protection clause. [Id. at 588.]
In Doster, supra at 512, a panel of this Court simply relied upon Fox for the proposition that the same rights were afforded by both the Michigan and federal Equal Protection Clauses.
We are not persuaded that our Supreme Court‘s statement in Fox requires us to alter our conclusion that Michigan‘s Equal Protection Clause provides more protection than that of the United States Constitution. In the context of the facts and issues of that case, the Court saw no need to construe
B. MICHIGAN COURTS ARE FREE TO ANALYZE STATE CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS DIFFERENTLY THAN FEDERAL COURTS ANALYZE FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS.
Beyond our freedom to read our own state‘s Equal Protection Clause more broadly than that of the United States Constitution, we are also free to reject the method used by the United States Supreme Court in analyzing the federal Equal Protection Clause in favor of a different analysis of Michigan‘s Equal Protection Clause. See Aladdin‘s Castle, Inc, 455 US 293.
The United States Supreme Court does not have a monopoly on correct constitutional interpretation. This fact is a cornerstone of federalism, justifying substantive disagreement by state courts. Although factors such as textual differences between the federal and state constitutions can certainly contribute to a state court‘s reasoning, the presence of these factors should not be viewed as a necessary condition precedent to independent analysis, under state constitutions, of claims rejected by the United States Supreme Court.
* * *
A state court may certainly be justified in declining requested relief in a suit raising state constitutional challenges. Such a result, however, should be based upon state constitutional analysis and not upon misplaced reliance upon Supreme Court federal constitutional interpretations. The latter approach constitutes an unwarranted delegation of state power to the Supreme Court and a resultant abdication of state judicial responsibility. By the same token, state court dissenters remain
As our Supreme Court pointed out in Delta Charter Twp v Dinolfo, 419 Mich 276-277, n 7, in which the Court rejected the United States Supreme Court‘s conclusion in Village of Belle Terre v Boraas, 416 US 1; 94 S Ct 1536; 39 L Ed 2d 797 (1974):
In People v Victor, 287 Mich 506; 28 NW 666 (1939), we found a statute prohibiting the giving away of drinking glasses at gas stations to be unreasonable and arbitrary and in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Michigan Constitution, despite that in Rast v Van Deman & Lewis Co, 240 US 342; 36 S Ct 370; 60 L Ed 679 (1916), the United States Supreme Court had upheld a similar law which banned the giving away of trading stamps. We applied the same rationality test, but we reached a different conclusion. We did not there and we do not now hesitate to reach a conclusion different from that reached by the United States Supreme Court when it is warranted.
For the benefit of the parties to this case and for any future review, we offer the following “plain statement.” As should be clear from our outright rejection of Belle Terre, our decision here is based solely on the Due Process Clause of the Michigan Constitution,
art 1, § 17 , notwithstanding the use of a standard originally developed in the federal system.
See also People v Smith, 420 Mich 1, 7, n 2; 360 NW2d 841 (1984).
The approach of the United States Supreme Court in determining the extent of federal constitutional protection of privacy rights in the context of Medicaid funding restrictions became apparent only a few years after Roe v Wade was decided. The United States Supreme Court considered whether the United States Constitution required a state participating in the title XIX Medicaid program to pay for nontherapeutic abortions when it pays the costs of childbirth.7 Maher v Roe, 432 US 464; 97 S Ct 2376; 53 L Ed 2d 484 (1977). In that case, indigent women of Connecticut claimed that their state was required to afford equal treatment to both abortion and childbirth and was not allowed to express a policy preference by funding only those medical expenses incident to childbirth. Id. at 470. After finding that no discrimination against a suspect class was involved, the Court considered whether the regulation impinged upon the fundamental right to abortion, which it recognized as protecting “the woman from unduly burdensome interference with her freedom to decide whether to terminate her pregnancy.” Id. at 473-474. The Court concluded that the Connecticut regulation did not impinge upon that fundamental right, reasoning:
The Connecticut regulation places no obstacles—absolute or otherwise—in the pregnant woman‘s path to an abortion. An indigent woman who desires an abortion suffers no disadvantage as a
consequence of Connecticut‘s decision to fund childbirth; she continues as before to be dependent on private sources for the service she desires. The State may have made childbirth a more attractive alternative, thereby influencing the woman‘s decision, but it has imposed no restriction on access to abortions that was not already there. The indigency that may make it difficult—and in some cases, perhaps, impossible—for some women to have abortions is neither created nor in any way affected by the Connecticut regulation. We conclude that the Connecticut regulation does not impinge upon the fundamental right recognized in Roe. [Id. at 474.]
Applying the rational basis test, the Court recognized that the state‘s strong and legitimate interest in encouraging normal childbirth was rationally furthered by the funding limitation; therefore, it did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the federal constitution. Id. at 478-479.
Subsequently, in Harris v McRae, 448 US 297; 100 S Ct 2671; 65 L Ed 2d 784 (1980), reh den 448 US 917 (1980), a majority of the Supreme Court relied extensively on its reasoning and decision in Maher, supra, in holding that the Hyde Amendment, which limited federal funds to only certain medically necessary abortions,8 did not impinge on the “due process liberty recognized in Wade” and did not violate the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment. Harris, supra at 318, 322.
On the same day Harris was decided, the Supreme Court upheld a state statute prohibiting
D. SECTION 109a DIRECTLY IMPINGES UPON A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT UNDER THE MICHIGAN CONSTITUTION.
Clearly, if the issues presented were to be adjudicated under the federal constitution, whether under the Equal Protection or Due Process Clauses
A pregnant woman in this state has a fundamental right to procreative choice, which includes the right to an abortion as well as the corollary fundamental right to bear her child. Before the enactment of § 109a, all Michigan women, rich and poor alike, were able to exercise those fundamental rights. Those indigent pregnant women who met the financial resource limitations set for the Medicaid program were able to obtain the medically necessary care recommended by their physicians, including abortion, throughout their pregnancies. Consistent with this state‘s long-established interest in the health of its pregnant women, the state made such care available, not without regard to the woman‘s financial status, but because of her indigency, which was a requirement for her receipt of Medicaid funding for her pregnancy.
Plaintiffs are indigent women, otherwise qualified to receive the benefits of the Medicaid program. The effect of the adoption of § 109a was to
We recognize that, while the woman‘s indigency also acts as a barrier to her freedom of choice, the state is not required to remedy that condition. But the state itself, by adoption of § 109a, has created a direct barrier to the woman‘s exercise of her right to an abortion.
There is thus an inequality within the program, with the distinction based on an indigent pregnant woman‘s exercise of an option which the constitution vouchsafes to her individually. If she exercises her constitutional right to abortion, she is excluded from a program for which she is otherwise qualified; if she elects not to exercise that constitutional option, she may continue to receive the benefits of this statutory program.
Fundamentally, indigent pregnant women are burdened in the exercise of their constitutional right of procreative choice, because they are the only people unable to obtain the “medically necessary” therapeutic service of abortion under the Medicaid program. This inequality is exacerbated on the facts of this case, where Jane Doe became pregnant as a result of rape, a criminal act. The indigent victim of a mugging who suffers another
E. ABSENT A COMPELLING STATE INTEREST, § 109a IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
(1) Having concluded that § 109a directly impinges upon a fundamental right under the Michigan Constitution, we consider whether that infringement renders the statute unconstitutional. As our Supreme Court has acknowledged:
The right to privacy includes certain activities which are fundamental to our concept of ordered liberty. Rights of this magnitude can only be abridged by governmental action where there exists a “compelling state interest.” Roe, supra, 152, 155. Kropf v Sterling Heights, 391 Mich 139, 157-158; 215 NW2d 179 (1974). [Advisory Opinion 1975 PA 227, 396 Mich 505.]
Therefore, we apply the strict scrutiny test, under which the state is required to show a compelling interest which justifies its legislative action. Manistee Bank & Trust Co, 394 Mich 668.
Defendants describe the goals of § 109a as the protection of potential human life and the encouragement of normal childbirth. Defendants admit, as it cannot be denied, that fiscal restraints do not
The state‘s interest in protecting human life must be measured by considering the degree to which the human life at issue has potentiality. Larkin, 389 Mich 541-542. The likelihood that a human life will result from a fetus depends on various factors, including the genetic viability of the fetus, the changing health status of the mother and the growing fetus, and circumstances outside of the mother‘s womb. The protection of potential human life is not a compelling state interest, which may constitutionally impinge upon a woman‘s right to an abortion, before the fetus is a “child,” or constitutes viable human life, as defined by our Supreme Court in Larkin.
We recognize that, when the state creates a right that did not exist at common law, such as the Medicaid program, it may impose reasonable procedural conditions as a prerequisite to the benefits of the program. Grand Rapids Independent Publishing Co v Grand Rapids, 335 Mich 620; 56 NW2d 403 (1953); Finkelstein v Dep‘t of Revenue, 312 Mich 186; 20 NW2d 154 (1945). It is said that “where the grant of a substantive right is inextricably intertwined with the limitations on the procedures which are to be employed in determining that right, a [person] in the position of [appellants] must take the bitter with the sweet.” Arnett v Kennedy, 416 US 134, 153-154; 94 S Ct 1633; 40 L Ed 2d 15 (1974), reh den 417 US 977 (1974).
(2) Our conclusion that § 109a is violative of the Michigan Constitution is not undermined by the fact that the statute in question was adopted through the initiative process,
[W]e should endeavor to place ourselves in the position of the framers of the Constitution, and ascertain what was meant at the time; for, if we are successful in doing this, we have solved the question of its meaning for all time. It could not mean one thing at the time of its adoption, and another thing today, when public sentiments have undergone a change. McPherson v Secretary of State, 92 Mich 377 (16 LRA 475, 31 Am St Rep 587 [52 NW 469 (1892)]). It is therefore essential that we determine the intent of this provision by reference to the state of the law or custom previously existing, and by the contemporaneous construction, rather than attempt to test its meaning by the so-called advanced or liberal views obtaining among a large class of the community at the present day. [Pfeiffer v Detroit Bd of Ed, 118 Mich 560, 564; 77 NW 250 (1898); see also Burdick v Secretary of State, 373 Mich 578, 584; 130 NW2d 380 (1964).]
We also recognize that our conclusion appears inconsistent with the following remarks by our Supreme Court in Bricker, 389 Mich 529:
The public policy of this state is to be found in the declarations and deeds of its people. These find concrete expression in the constitution adopted by the people, the laws enacted by the Legislature, the acts of the Governor, the Attorney General, others exercising executive power, the decisions of our courts, and the vote of the people. Proponents of abortion reform took a case to the people last November and lost.
It is the public policy of the state to proscribe abortion. This public policy must now be subordinated to Federal Constitutional requirements.
(3) In concluding that the state‘s interest is not a compelling one, we have found persuasive reported decisions in which five other states considered the validity of statutes or administrative regulations with language similar to, but less restrictive than, § 109a, under their respective state constitutions, and found them unconstitutional. See Doe v Maher, 40 Conn Sup 394; 515 A2d 134 (1986); Planned Parenthood Ass‘n v Dep‘t of Human Resources, 630 Or App 41; 663 P2d 1247 (1983), aff‘d 297 Or 562; 687 P2d 785 (1984); Right to Choose v Byrne, 91 NJ 287; 450 A2d 925 (1982); Committee to Defend Reproductive Rights v Myers, 29 Cal 3d 252; 172 Cal Rptr 866; 625 P2d 779; 20 ALR4th 1118 (1981); Moe v Secretary of Administration & Finance, 382 Mass 629; 417 NE2d 387 (1981).
In Right to Choose v Byrne, supra at 293, the Supreme Court of New Jersey concluded that its state statute prohibiting Medicaid funding for abortions “except where it is medically indicated to be necessary to preserve the woman‘s life,” violated the right of pregnant women to equal protection of the law under the New Jersey Constitution. Acknowledging that there is no fundamen-
The right to choose whether to have an abortion, however, is a fundamental right of all pregnant women, including those entitled to Medicaid reimbursement for necessary medical treatment. As to that group of women, the challenged statute discriminates between those for whom medical care is necessary for childbirth and those for whom an abortion is medically necessary. Under NJSA 30:4D-6.1, those needing abortions receive funds only when their lives are at stake. By granting funds when life is at risk, but withholding them when health is endangered, the statute denies equal protection to those women entitled to necessary medical services under Medicaid.
Thus, the statute impinges upon the fundamental right of a woman to control her body and destiny. [Id. at 305-306.]
The court explained that, although the protection of potential life is a legitimate state interest, it did not outweigh, at any stage of the pregnancy, the superior interest in the life and health of the mother. Id. at 306. Conceding that the legislature was not required to fund any of the costs of medically necessary treatment for an indigent woman‘s pregnancy, the court concluded, as do we:
Once it undertakes to fund medically necessary care attendant upon pregnancy, however, government must proceed in a neutral manner. Given the high priority accorded in this State to the rights of privacy and health, it is not neutral to fund services medically necessary for childbirth while refusing to fund medically necessary abortions. Nor is it neutral to provide one woman with the means to protect her life at the expense of a fetus and to force another woman to sacrifice her health to protect a potential life. [Id. at 306-307.]
Similarly, the Connecticut Supreme Court responded in Doe v Maher to the United States Supreme Court‘s decision in Maher v Roe by ruling that its state regulation restricting Medicaid funding for abortions constituted a violation of substantive due process because the regulation impinged upon the plaintiffs’ right of privacy guaranteed by the state constitution. As the Connecticut Supreme Court explained, once the state chose to pay for medical treatment of the poor, it was required to do so with neutrality. Doe v Maher. Because no compelling reason to justify the regulation was advanced by the state, the regulation was unconstitutional. Id. Moreover, the regulation constituted a violation of the equal protection clauses of the Connecticut Constitution, which had been amended by addition of an equal rights amendment.
We conclude that the Connecticut Supreme Court‘s due process analysis is supportive of our equal protection analysis. In addition, although Michigan has not adopted an equal rights amendment, we have recognized the broader scope of our own Equal Protection Clause, as compared to that of the federal constitution.
(4) The circuit court in this case placed great reliance upon the only contrary state case, Fischer v Dep‘t of Public Welfare, 509 Pa 293; 502 A2d 114 (1985), in which the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania rejected attacks on the basis of the equal rights provisions of that state‘s constitution,
A basic premise of the Fischer decision is that
Additionally, the Pennsylvania statute contained an exception not found in
In the present case, however, we cannot accept appellant‘s rather simplistic argument that because only a woman can have an abortion then the statute necessarily utilizes “sex as a basis for distinction,” Henderson v Henderson, supra [458 Pa 97, 101; 327 A2d 60 (1974)]. To the contrary, the basis for the distinction here is not sex but abortion, and the statute does not accord varying benefits to men and women because of their sex, but accords varying benefits to one class of women, as distinct from another, based on a voluntary choice made by the women. [509 Pa 313-314. Emphasis supplied.]
Yet the case at bar is a perfect example of a highly relevant distinction between this case and
We add that this case should not, and for us does not, present a moral question. As the court said in Committee to Defend Reproductive Rights v Myers, supra, 29 Cal 3d 256-257:
First, this case does not turn on the morality or immorality of abortion, and most decidedly does not concern the personal views of the individual justices as to the wisdom of the legislation itself or the ethical considerations involved in a woman‘s individual decision whether or not to bear a child. Indeed, although in this instance the Legislature has adopted restrictions which discriminate against women who choose to have an abortion, similar constitutional issues would arise if the Legislature—as a population control measure, for example—funded Medi-Cal abortions but refused to provide comparable medical care for poor women who choose childbirth. Thus, the constitutional question before us does not involve a weigh-
ing of the value of abortion as against childbirth, but instead concerns the protection of either procreative choice from discriminatory governmental treatment.
Second, contrary to the suggestion of the defendants and the dissent, the question presented is not whether the state is generally obligated to subsidize the exercise of constitutional rights for those who cannot otherwise afford to do so; plaintiffs do not contend that the state would be required to fund abortions for poor women if the state had not chosen to fund medical services for poor women who choose to bear a child. Rather, we face the much narrower question of whether the state, having enacted a general program to provide medical services to the poor, may selectively withhold such benefits from otherwise qualified persons solely because such persons seek to exercise their constitutional right of procreative choice in a manner which the state does not favor and does not wish to support.
VI. CONCLUSION
Because the state has failed to show a compelling interest to justify § 109a‘s impingement on the right of a woman to terminate her first-trimester pregnancy, we hold that exclusion from the Medicaid program of indigent pregnant women who elect “medically necessary” abortions in lieu of carrying the pregnancy to term is a denial of equal protection of the law guaranteed by
Our resolution of this appeal on the basis of the Equal Protection Clause of
Reversed and remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. We do not retain jurisdiction.
DOCTOROFF, J., concurred.
SULLIVAN, P.J. (dissenting). I dissent.
The people of this state, through the legislation at issue, have spoken: “It is the policy of this state to prohibit the appropriation of public funds for the purpose of providing an abortion to a person who receives welfare benefits unless the abortion is necessary to save the life of the mother.”
As stated in People v Bricker, 389 Mich 524, 529; 208 NW2d 172 (1973):
The public policy of this state is a mandate upon us. Our duty to enforce that mandate is as clear as is our duty to comply with decisions of the United States Supreme Court construing the Federal Constitution.
The public policy of this state is to be found in the declarations and deeds of its people. These find concrete expression in the constitution adopted by the people, the laws enacted by the Legislature, the acts of the Governor, the Attorney General, others exercising executive power, the decisions of our courts, and the vote of the people.
Bricker was decided on the heels of Roe v Wade,
Given the language in Bricker, I see no reason in this case to construe
In Maher, a majority of the Supreme Court held that a state regulation under which Medicaid recipients received payments for medical services incident to childbirth but not for medical services incident to nontherapeutic abortions, does not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. After deciding that the law at issue neither impinged on the fundamental right of a woman to decide whether to terminate a pregnancy nor discriminated against a suspect class, the majority applied the rational relationship test. Id., pp 474, 478. Applying that test, it recognized that the state has a strong and legitimate interest in encouraging normal childbirth and determined
A few years later, in Harris v McRae, 448 US 297, 318, 322; 100 S Ct 2671; 65 L Ed 2d 784 (1980), reh den 448 US 917 (1980), a majority of the Supreme Court held that the Hyde Amendment, which limited federal funds to only certain medically necessary abortions, did not impinge on the “due process liberty recognized in [Roe v] Wade” and did not violate the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment. In reaching its decision, the majority in Harris relied extensively on its decision in Maher.
On the same day that the Court decided Harris, it also upheld a state statute which prohibited state medical assistance payments for all abortions not necessary to preserve the life of the woman seeking an abortion against a claim that the statute violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Williams v Zbaraz, 448 US 358; 100 S Ct 2694; 65 L Ed 2d 831 (1980). The Court held that the arguments of the parties challenging the validity of the statute were foreclosed by the majority decision in Harris.
My primary disagreement with the majority opinion is over whether the legislation at issue, § 109a, impinges on a woman‘s fundamental right to choose to have an abortion. The majority concludes that it does and therefore determined whether the legislation is justified by a compelling state interest. I contend that it does not.
No one questions a woman‘s right to choose to have an abortion without “unduly burdensome interference.” Maher, 432 US 473-474. I am not persuaded, though, that the state‘s refusal to pay for such a procedure impinges on the woman‘s
The majority states: “Fundamentally, indigent pregnant women are burdened in the exercise of their constitutional right of procreative choice, because they are the only people unable to obtain the ‘medically necessary’ therapeutic service of abortion under the Medicaid Program.” Supra, p 524. But nothing requires a state to pay for any medically necessary services. How is it, then, that § 109a is the barrier to a woman‘s exercise of her right to have an abortion? It is a woman‘s indigency itself which burdens her right. Section 109a places no obstacles in the way of a woman who chooses to have an abortion. Instead, it merely fails to remove an obstacle which is not of the state‘s making: the woman‘s indigency. See Maher, 432 US 474; Harris, 448 US 314.
There is no doubt that § 109a operates to encourage childbirth. This is permitted. A state is not precluded from favoring childbirth over abortion and from allocating public funds to favor childbirth. See Maher, 432 US 474. A distinction exists between a state‘s interfering with a protected activity and its encouraging an alternative activity. See id., p 475, and, e.g., Jacobs v Headlee, 135 Mich App 167, 173-174; 352 NW2d 721 (1984), and Cornwell v Dep‘t of Social Services, 111 Mich App 68, 74; 315 NW2d 150 (1981). Here, the legislation encourages an alternative activity to abortion without interfering with a woman‘s right to have an abortion.
Nor do I believe that the classification created by the statute requires us to apply the strict scrutiny test. If the legislation at issue operated to disadvantage a suspect classification, then the Court must determine whether the classification is justified by a compelling state interest. Manistee Bank & Trust Co v McGowan, 394 Mich 655, 668; 232 NW2d 636 (1975); Grieb, supra, p 488. First, although the statute necessarily affects only women, it does so on the basis of a biological fact unique to women: only women can get pregnant. Equal treatment therefore is not required. People v McDonald, 409 Mich 110, 123; 293 NW2d 588 (1980); Fischer v Dep‘t of Public Welfare, 509 Pa 293, 312-315; 502 A2d 114 (1985). Second, financial need does not constitute a suspect class. Maher, 432 US 470-471. Finally, the statute does not create a classification on the basis of race. Nor do plaintiffs allege that the statute, even if facially neutral, purposefully discriminates against African Americans. See, e.g., People v Ford, 417 Mich 66, 101-103; 331 NW2d 878 (1982), and Doster v Estes, 126 Mich App 497, 512; 337 NW2d 549 (1983).2
Because the legislation neither impinges on a fundamental right nor discriminates against a suspect classification, strict scrutiny is not appropriate. In other words, the state does not need to justify the legislation with a compelling state interest. Instead, the rational basis test is appropriate: whether the classification is rationally related to a legitimate governmental interest. Manistee Bank & Trust Co
Applying this test, I contend that the legislation at issue withstands scrutiny under our state constitution; the legislation bears a rational or reasonable relationship to a legitimate goal of the Legislature. Automatic Music & Vending Corp, supra, p 459; Shavers, supra, p 613. Protecting the potentiality of human life and encouraging childbirth are unquestionably strong and legitimate interests which have been repeatedly recognized by the United States Supreme Court. Harris, 448 US 325; Beal v Doe, 432 US 438; 97 S Ct 2366; 53 L Ed 2d 464 (1976). Even the Court in Roe v Wade recognized that there is “still another important and legitimate interest in protecting the potentiality of human life.” 410 US 162. Paying for the medical expenses of childbirth for an indigent woman while not paying for the medical expenses of an abortion for an indigent woman creates an incentive which is rationally or reasonably related to the goal of protecting life. Harris, 448 US 325. Moreover, it is not irrational for the state to pay for medically necessary services generally, but not for abortions. As noted by the Supreme Court in Harris, “Abortion is inherently different from other medical procedures, because no other procedure involves the purposeful termination of a potential life.” Id.
Plaintiffs’ remaining constitutional claims can
The statute, which precludes Medicaid funds from being used to pay for abortions unless an abortion is necessary to save the life of the mother, does not violate our state constitution. The circuit court order granting defendants’ motion for summary disposition should therefore be affirmed.