What overturning Roe v. Wade could mean for decades-old abortion bans still on the books

Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other advocates have said that the nearly-century old Michigan state law could go into effect if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Michigan, however, isn’t the only state with a pre-Roe abortion law still intact that legal experts say could be resurrected and enforced. “Because if Roe is officially overturned by the Supreme Court—which may happen any day now—abortion could become illegal in Michigan in nearly any circumstance, including in cases of rape and incest, because of a 1931 law on the books banning abortion in Michigan,” Whitmer said in a statement last week. Like Michigan, Wisconsin also has a Democratic governor, Tony Evers, who is backing efforts to overturn the state’s 173-year-old criminal abortion ban, and a Democratic attorney general, Josh Kaul, who has said he will not enforce the abortion law. State attorneys general could start enforcing these pre-Roe abortion laws, but they would have to issue an opinion or ask a court to vacate that judgment if there had been any litigation, said Ingrid Duran, the anti-abortion group National Right to Life Committee’s director of state legislation. “If the court overrules Roe and allow states to prohibit abortion, states hostile to abortion rights – many of which have lots of different criminal laws that are not enforced today related to abortion – we think that they will essentially have to pick which law is going to be the vehicle to criminalize or prohibit abortion in their state,” Elisabeth Smith, the director of state policy and advocacy for the abortion rights Center for Reproductive Rights, told CNN.