The Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act has been broadened to include discrimination protections for Michigan workers who receive abortions, under legislation signed into law by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer Wednesday.
Michigan’s civil rights law had already provided protections for employees contending with “pregnancy, childbirth, or a medical condition related to pregnancy or childbirth,” but had an explicit exception for people who received elective abortions.
The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Erika Geiss, D-Taylor, removed that exception and included “the termination of a pregnancy” as a category protected from discrimination for any employment-related purpose.
Since 57% of Michigan voters approved Proposal 3 in the 2022 election, enshrining abortion protections in the state constitution, Democrats have moved to pass other related legislation, including the repeal of the 1931 law that would have criminalized the procedure.
“No one in Michigan should face discrimination because they exercised their constitutional rights, including their right to reproductive freedom by having an abortion,” Whitmer said in a statement announcing she signed SB 147. Democrats have also repealed laws criminalizing publication of recipes for contraceptives or abortion-inducing drugs and another that detailed the sentencing guidelines for those now-former crimes.
Geiss, when the bill came to the Senate floor for a vote, said the legislation was about shoring up the protections of Proposal 3.
“It is...
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