Michigan Coerced Abortion Ban (HB 4598)

HB 4598 would have prohibited coercing a woman into getting an abortion through violence, abuse, or threats to withhold support that is legally required, threats to withdraw from a legally binding contract for which the pregnant woman is a beneficiary, or threats to discharge her from employment.

The bill would have classified coercing a woman to have an abortion or retaliating against her for refusing to have an abortion as a misdemeanor.

According to a report from the Guttmacher Institute, the number of instances in which a woman may have been coerced into terminating a pregnancy is much fewer than those reported by anti-choice groups like the Elliot Institute, which reported that 64 percent of women felt pressured by others to to have an abortion. One study found that the proportion of women citing influence from partners or parents as their most important reason for terminating their pregnancy was less than 1 percent.

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