Michigan Abortion Rights After Proposal 3: What Changed

Abortion is legal in Michigan before fetal viability. After viability, the state may regulate it, but it cannot prohibit an abortion that an attending health care professional judges medically indicated to protect the pregnant person’s life or physical or mental health. That rule comes from Const 1963, art 1, § 28, which voters added through Proposal 3 in November 2022.

Michigan courts have since struck down the 24-hour waiting period, the state’s mandatory counseling materials, and the rule that only physicians may perform abortions. Two limits have not been struck down: the ban on using Medicaid funds for most abortions and the parental consent requirement for minors.

What Proposal 3 Put in the Michigan Constitution

Voters approved Proposal 3 by 56.7% to 43.3%, and the amendment took effect December 24, 2022. Section 28(1) gives every individual a fundamental right to reproductive freedom. That includes prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion care, miscarriage management, and infertility care.

The state may not deny, burden, or infringe that right unless it has a compelling interest and uses the least restrictive means. Section 28(4) narrows what counts as compelling: only protecting the health of the person seeking care, consistent with accepted clinical standards and evidence-based medicine, and without overriding the person’s own decision-making.

Two other pieces matter in practice. Section 28(3) bars the state from penalizing anyone for a pregnancy outcome, including miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion, and from penalizing someone who helps a pregnant person with that person’s consent. Section 28(5) makes the amendment self-executing, so it applies without any new legislation.

Why the Standard Is Stricter Than Roe

Michigan’s amendment does not follow the old federal “undue burden” test. In the 2025 Northland ruling, the Court of Claims explained that the amendment does not treat potential life in a nonviable fetus as a compelling state interest. Under the text of § 28(4), a restriction has to protect patient health to survive.

The Legislature also passed the Reproductive Health Act, MCL 333.26101 et seq., as implementing legislation. Section 333.26105 lets a person sue for an injunction or damages when reproductive freedom rights are violated.

When Is Abortion Legal in Michigan?

Before viability, the state needs a compelling health-based reason and the least restrictive means to regulate an abortion, and the courts have found almost none of the old restrictions meet that test. After viability, the state may regulate but cannot override a clinician’s judgment that an abortion is needed to protect the patient’s life or physical or mental health.

Viability is defined in § 28(4) as the point when, in the attending health care professional’s judgment and based on the particular facts of the case, there is a significant likelihood of the fetus’s sustained survival outside the uterus without extraordinary medical measures. No statute fixes it at a particular week. The clinician decides, case by case.

Individual providers set their own gestational limits, which are a business and clinical decision rather than a legal one. Care for pregnancies with complications or fetal anomalies later in pregnancy is often handled at hospital-based clinics, such as the University of Michigan’s complex family planning clinic described in the trial record.

Which Restrictions Did Michigan Courts Remove?

On May 13, 2025, Court of Claims Judge Sima Patel issued a final judgment in Northland Family Planning Center v. Nessel, Case No. 24-000011-MM. She declared most of MCL 333.17015 unconstitutional and permanently barred its enforcement. She had earlier blocked the same provisions with a preliminary injunction on June 25, 2024, which is why abortion providers stopped enforcing them in mid-2024.

An unusual feature of the case: the Attorney General, the LARA director, and the DHHS director all agreed the laws were unconstitutional. The court let “the People of the State of Michigan” intervene, represented by Attorney General’s office lawyers behind an internal conflict wall, so the laws still had a defender.

Date	Event	Effect
Dec. 24, 2022	Art 1, § 28 takes effect	Abortion becomes a constitutional right
Apr. 5, 2023	1931 abortion ban repealed	Old criminal ban removed from the books
Feb. 13, 2024	2023 PA 286 takes effect	Separate abortion insurance rider law repealed
June 25, 2024	Preliminary injunction	Waiting period and counseling blocked
May 13, 2025	Final judgment in Northland	Provisions permanently enjoined
July 3, 2025	Medicaid ban challenge dismissed	Ban remains in force

Two-column graphic showing three abortion rules struck down in 2025 and coercion screening kept

The 24-Hour Waiting Period

MCL 333.17015(1) and (3) required written informed consent at least 24 hours before an abortion. Patients had to review state-produced materials, often on a DHHS website, and print a time-stamped confirmation form that expired after 14 days. A patient who arrived without the printout could not be treated that day.

Trial testimony put numbers on the effect. Northland’s executive director estimated that about 10 patients a month across its three clinics were turned away for lacking the form, and a University of Michigan physician testified she turned away at least one patient a day. The court found that the delay raised costs, prolonged waits, increased the risk of disclosure to others, and could push a patient from medication abortion to a more invasive procedure.

State-Mandated Counseling Materials

The court struck down the entire uniform informed-consent package in subsection (3). That included the fetal development chart, the parenting and prenatal care pamphlet, the standardized procedure summaries, and the statement about possible post-abortion emotions. Judge Patel found the chart and parenting materials irrelevant to a patient who had chosen abortion and, for patients with fatal fetal anomalies, cruel.

Who Can Perform an Abortion

MCL 333.17015(1) allowed only a licensed physician to perform an abortion. The court struck that limit down, so nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, and physician assistants who are otherwise licensed and trained can provide abortion care.

What the Court Kept: Coercion Screening

The judge upheld MCL 333.17015(11)(i) and MCL 333.17015a, which require providers to screen patients orally for coercion to abort and to post notices about coercion and domestic violence hotlines. The remaining provisions were saved under the severability clause in MCL 333.17015(17).

The ruling is not necessarily the last word. The intervening defendant appealed to the Michigan Court of Appeals, and the clinics cross-appealed the coercion-screening holding. A Court of Appeals decision could narrow or reverse parts of the judgment.

End-of-Life Decisions During Pregnancy

In April 2026, Judge Patel struck down provisions of Michigan’s Estates and Protected Individuals Code known as the “pregnancy exclusion,” which limited what a patient advocate could decide about withholding or withdrawing treatment from a pregnant patient. She ruled that the provisions infringed the right to reproductive freedom, according to reporting by the Michigan Advance.

The 1931 Ban and the Reproductive Health Act

Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed bills repealing the 1931 abortion ban on April 5, 2023. The ban had already been blocked by Michigan courts in 2022 and was unenforceable once Proposal 3 passed, so the repeal removed it from the statute books.

The Reproductive Health Act followed in two stages, with signings on November 21 and December 11, 2023. House Bill 4949, signed December 11, became 2023 PA 286, effective February 13, 2024. It repealed the Abortion Insurance Opt-Out Act, 2013 PA 182 (MCL 550.541 to 550.551), the law that required people to buy a separate rider to get abortion coverage in an employer or individual plan.

The package also repealed clinic-licensing rules aimed specifically at abortion providers and a law that could have criminalized clinicians for prescribing medication abortion. It left out three items: the waiting period, the informed-consent law, and repeal of the Medicaid funding ban. Bills to repeal the Medicaid ban, House Bills 4958 and 4959, did not advance, a point the Court of Claims noted in its Medicaid decision.

Parental Consent and Judicial Bypass for Minors

A person under 18 who is not legally emancipated needs consent from a parent or legal guardian, or a court waiver, before an abortion. The requirement comes from the Parental Rights Restoration Act, 1990 PA 211, MCL 722.901 to 722.909, which voters-by-initiative put on the books and which took effect March 28, 1991.

A minor who cannot or does not want to involve a parent can petition the family division of circuit court for a waiver under MCL 722.904. The judge can grant it if the minor is sufficiently mature and well enough informed to decide on her own, or if a waiver would be in her best interests. The hearing is confidential and expedited, and court rules, including MCR 3.615, govern how the court must treat a minor who first calls or visits.

Medical emergencies are handled separately under MCL 722.905.

Is the Parental Consent Law Safe From Challenge?

It has not been struck down, and the question is open. The Northland case did not challenge it. Right to Life of Michigan sued in federal court arguing Proposal 3 threatens parental rights over a minor’s abortion decision, but the Sixth Circuit affirmed the dismissal in May 2026 because the plaintiffs lacked standing. The lower court’s dismissal did not address the merits, so no court has decided whether § 28 can coexist with the consent requirement.

Diagram showing two routes for a minor in Michigan, parental consent or a court waiver, leading to an appointment

Types of Abortion and Gestational Limits

Michigan providers offer medication abortion and in-clinic procedures, and each provider sets its own gestational limit. Planned Parenthood of Michigan, whose published limits are a useful benchmark, lists three options.

Option	Limit	Notes
Medication, in person	12 weeks	Offered at all PPMI health centers
Medication, telehealth	11 weeks 5 days	Pills arrive by mail
In-clinic procedure	19.6 weeks	Sedation available

Medication abortion uses mifepristone and misoprostol. According to Planned Parenthood of Michigan, the medication must be taken while you are physically in Michigan. Telehealth patients get both drugs by mail, according to the Northland trial record.

Bar chart comparing gestational limits for in-person medication, telehealth medication and in-clinic abortion

Costs, Insurance and the Medicaid Ban

Michigan Medicaid pays for an abortion only to save the patient’s life or when the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest. The restriction is MCL 400.109a, which the Legislature adopted in 1987 and voters approved by referendum in November 1988 by 56.9% to 43.1%. The rape, incest and life exceptions follow from the Sixth Circuit’s decision in Planned Parenthood Association of Michigan v. Engler, 73 F3d 634 (1996), which requires states in Medicaid to fund those cases.

A challenge to the ban reached the Court of Claims in 2024, brought by YWCA Kalamazoo, which runs a fund that pays for abortion care. On July 3, 2025, Chief Judge Brock Swartzle dismissed the case for lack of standing without reaching the merits, though he wrote that “significant questions” remain whether the word “effectuate” in § 28 can support a right to public funding. YWCA appealed.

For private insurance, the rider requirement is gone since February 13, 2024, but no law requires insurers to cover abortion. Whether your plan does is a question for the plan.

What Providers Charge

Prices vary by method, gestational age and provider, so ask for a quote when you book. Planned Parenthood of Michigan expects the full balance at the appointment, accepts cash, Visa, Mastercard, Discover and money orders, and does not accept personal checks or American Express. Its financial assistance line is 800-230-7526, and its abortion navigators can also coordinate travel.

Protections for Patients, Providers and Out-of-State Visitors

Section 28(3) bars the state from penalizing a person for a pregnancy outcome or for helping someone with their consent. That covers people in Michigan. For people crossing state lines, the protection is thinner.

Governor Whitmer issued Executive Directive 2022-5 on May 25, 2022, instructing state agencies not to cooperate with other states’ investigations into people who obtain, provide, or assist with reproductive care. On July 13, 2022, she signed Executive Order 2022-4, under which the governor’s office declines to assist extradition for those offenses.

Michigan has no statutory shield law for out-of-state investigations; the UCLA Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy describes the state’s protections as an executive order and directive plus an insurer anti-discrimination statute. An executive order can be revoked, so a governor taking office in January 2027 could keep, change, or end these protections.

What to Bring and Where to Start

You do not need to complete state-mandated paperwork or wait 24 hours. Planned Parenthood of Michigan says its patients are not required to review state information or sign a form beforehand, and the court’s 2025 judgment confirms the legal basis. Bring:

If you are 18 or older: a photo ID showing your date of birth. Planned Parenthood says it cannot provide services without one.
If you are a minor with parental consent: a copy of your birth certificate, your parent’s photo ID, and your own photo ID if you have one (a school ID works).
If you are a minor with a court waiver: the paperwork the judge gave you and a photo ID if you have one.
A payment method, since full payment is expected at the visit.

Planned Parenthood of Michigan provides in-clinic procedures at its Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Flint, and Kalamazoo health centers. Other centers offer the abortion pill only. Northland Family Planning, which performs between 7,000 and 8,000 abortions a year according to trial testimony, operates three clinics in the Detroit area, and the University of Michigan’s clinic handles complex medical cases.

Map of Michigan with pins marking Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Flint and Kalamazoo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is abortion legal in Michigan?

Yes. Art 1, § 28 protects abortion as part of a fundamental right to reproductive freedom. After fetal viability the state may regulate, but cannot ban an abortion that is medically indicated to protect the patient’s life or physical or mental health.

Is there a waiting period for abortion in Michigan?

No. The Court of Claims permanently barred enforcement of the 24-hour waiting period in its May 13, 2025 judgment, after a preliminary injunction on June 25, 2024. An appeal of that judgment is pending in the Court of Appeals.

How late can you get an abortion in Michigan?

The constitution ties the state’s power to regulate to fetal viability, which a clinician determines case by case. Providers set their own limits, and Planned Parenthood of Michigan’s in-clinic limit is 19.6 weeks.

Do I need parental consent if I’m under 18?

Yes, unless you are emancipated. You need consent from a parent or legal guardian, or a waiver from the family division of circuit court under MCL 722.904.

Does Medicaid cover abortion in Michigan?

Only to save the patient’s life or when the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest. MCL 400.109a bars Medicaid payment for other abortions, and a 2024 lawsuit challenging it was dismissed for lack of standing in July 2025.

Can a nurse practitioner or physician assistant provide an abortion in Michigan?

Yes. The court struck down the physician-only rule in MCL 333.17015(1), so licensed advanced practice clinicians can provide abortion care within their training and scope of practice.