2003 Senate Bill 395 ↩

House Roll Call 138: Passed

To define as a legally born person for all purposes under the law a partially delivered fetus (or “perinate”), if it has a detectable heartbeat, evidence of breathing, or evidence of spontaneous movement. (Courts have traditionally used a definition based on when a fetus takes its first breath.) A doctor would be prohibited from harming a perinate unless the procedure was necessary avert an imminent threat to the physical health of the mother, or to save the life of the mother, and every reasonable effort was made to preserve the life of both the mother and the perinate. The bill would have the effect of prohibiting “partial birth abortion” in Michigan.