Northland Family Planning is proud to announce that thanks to our efforts, aided by the wonderful legal team at the Center for Reproductive Rights and fabulous advocates at Medical Students for Choice, three medically unnecessary restrictions on abortion care have been struck down in court.
In 2022 Michigan voters passed the Reproductive Freedom for All Amendment – protecting abortion and reproductive rights in our state constitution. However, the RFFA did not remove pre-existing restrictions on abortion care from Michigan law. Instead, the RFFA gave us a pathway to challenge these restrictions as unconstitutional – which is exactly what we did. As the lead plaintiff in the case, Northland Family Planning’s CEO, Renee Chelian, provided testimony that showed how patients had been negatively affected by these restrictions.
In her decision handed down on May 13, 2025, Court of Claims Judge Sima Patel has ruled three of these restrictions unconstitutional.
- Patients will no longer be burdened by 24-hour waiting periods for abortion care. Michiganders as well as those traveling from out of state will now have easier access to care.
- Clinics will no longer be forced to dispense biased, misleading counseling materials. This “counseling” forced patients to sit through stigmatizing anti-abortion information. Thanks to this court ruling, patients will only be given the facts about their abortion procedure.
- The prohibition on qualified advanced practice clinicians from providing abortion care has been lifted. APCs are trained medical professionals, fully capable of providing abortion care. In many states, APCs already provide abortion care – with no difference in quality or safety of care. This prohibition did not make medicine safer – it existed to limit the availability of abortion providers.
We are so proud to be part of the fight for expanded abortion access in Michigan. This case is a massive win in the face of a national political landscape poised to further attack reproductive freedoms.
While we celebrate, we also recognize there is a long way to go. There are still laws in Michigan that create medically unnecessary barriers to care; the requirement for parental consent directly challenges minors’ right to bodily autonomy and forces them to navigate a confusing judicial bypass system. The state of Michigan also has a law that prevents state funds from going to abortion care services.
Northland Family Planning is determined to fight for accessible, legal, and affordable abortion care. Not just for Michiganders, but every American. We hope this court ruling encourages similar actions across the country.