The state of Michigan has had an abortion waiting period law on the books since 1999. That’s 20 years of deceiving women! Like all the other states that have a waiting period law on the books, this was designed as a way to make access to abortion care more difficult for women. These laws are passed under the guise of “helping women” but they never, ever do that. In fact, waiting period laws only hurt women, as abortion is a legal, safe procedure, and accessing care quickly and without delay is often important.
In order to comply with the State’s law, all patients seeking abortion care must receive both written and verbalinformation at least 24 hours before their abortion can take place. Ok, great. So what do you have to do?
- Call Northland Family Planning at 1-800-447-7354
- When you schedule an appointment for an abortion, your phone counselor will give you the verbal 24 hour information over the phone. If someone else scheduled the appointment for you, you have to call and talk to us so we can give you, the patient, the verbal 24-hour information. This information takes about 15 seconds to give over the phone.
- Get your paperwork at least 24 hours before your scheduled appointment
- There are three ways to receive your written 24-hour paperwork
- In person, at the clinic
- By fax
- On the internet
- There are three ways to receive your written 24-hour paperwork
If you choose to get your paperwork in person, all you have to do is stop by any of our offices and let the staff member at the window know you need your 24 hour paperwork. Boom. Done. Additionally, we can fax it to you anywhere; just let us know your fax number. If you need to get the paperwork from the Internet, just know that you will also need a printer. Receiving the paperwork online absolutely requires you to print out a confirmation from the website that states you did, in fact, review the materials online. It will even print out 3 dates and times: the date and time you viewed the materials, the date and time you can have your abortion, and the date and time the paper expires. Sounds ridiculous, right? Because it is.
For more detailed information on what paperwork to print off and where to go, please click the following link. This will take you to a page on our site that has step-by-step instructions. The actual state paperwork is located at this link. BE AWARE! The information provided by the state is medically inaccurate and misleading. Call us if you have any questions or uncertainties. We can help you.