There’s a lot going on politically, but to help you navigate the world of potential legislature, here are a handful of bills both in Michigan and across the country that are being considered, some more serious than others. Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, legislators are still navigating the world of abortion, and both Michigan and Washington are considering bills to protect the right to abortions. Plenty of interesting legislation is being thrown around in Florida, and Texas wants to leave the United States! Let’s take a look.
In the wake of the recent Michigan State University shooting, Democrats in the Michigan Senate have introduced an 11 bill gun reform packet aimed at preventing another tragedy.
The bills primarily focus on administering universal background checks on gun sales, creating secure storage laws to prevent children from accessing guns, and implementing extreme risk prevention laws that would flag individuals with guns that might pose a risk to themselves or others. Some of the bills would abolish taxes on certain safe gun storage equipment.
March for Our Lives press associate Mikah Rector-Brooks remarked, “This package (of bills) is the floor, not the ceiling… It’s simply the first step, we need so much more after this.”
Even after Proposal 3 passed in Michigan, a 1931 “zombie” law still exists that makes it a misdemeanor to have an abortion or even a miscarriage. The bill carries no exemptions for rape or incest cases. However, there have been a whole slew of bills introduced to both the Michigan House and Senate on March 1st that would officially strike the law from the books. The law is considered a “zombie” law because it has been superseded by another law — Proposal 3. Governor Whitmer alongside many other democrats have made it a priority to get rid of any remaining zombie laws to prevent a possible zombie apocalypse.
As many already know, after Roe v. Wade was overturned, many were concerned that the 1931 law would go into effect, but Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel refused to prosecute cases and called the law “draconian.”
The bills have attracted some pro life critics, but director of Michigan’s Right to Life Genevieve Marnon argues that the bills allow for the sale of abortion pills not provided by healthcare providers. Other Republicans in the House committee attempted to introduce a number of amendments to the bills, but none were accepted.
On Thursday March 2, Michigan’s House voted 50-38 in favor of the bills, with two Republicans also voting in favor, with one (Rep. James Desana, R-Carleton) stating that he would continue to uphold the constitution regardless of his own personal beliefs. Those in opposition of the bill primarily argue that a bill to remove the 1931 law would be unnecessary, with others condemning abortions. The House bills will now move to the Senate for further voting.
Speaking of abortion rights, the state of Washington is considering several pieces of legislation that would protect out of state patients coming to the state seeking abortions and gender affirming care, prevent third party ovulation and period tracker apps from sharing data without consent, and protect doctors in Washington that violated other state’s laws surrounding abortion.
One of the proposed bills would prevent other states from accessing medical records of out of state patients seeking abortion or gender affirming healthcare, and would shield the patients from criminal investigations. It would also protect doctors performing the care in the same way. Washington legislators in favor of the bill state that there has been an influx of out of state patients at abortion clinics, and that this right must be protected. Opponents of the bill state that the bill is unnecessary fearmongering, and cite worries that other states might react negatively and attempt to enact their own legislation to circumvent the law. The bill in the House passed 59-38, but still needs to move to the Senate.
Over in Florida, some interesting bills have been considered recently, with some holding serious implications for the future. Here’s some brief summaries.
Florida State Senator Jason Brodeur filed a piece of legislation requiring any blogger who writes about the Florida Government to register with the state or be fined. The bill definitely gets into some sticky territory with the First Amendment, however.
State Senator Blaise Ingoglia filed a bill that would essentially dissolve any political party that has officially supported slavery in the past, or in other words, the Democratic party. The bill was filed not as a serious piece of legislation, but instead as commentary on “cancellations.”
While this is the Florida section, I do believe this is interesting and should be included here. Yet another Texit bill has been introduced! I say yet another because this does tend to happen every once in a while.
That’s going to wrap us up here. Lots of bills are currently being thrown around on multiple hot button topics, including sex education, abortion, critical race theory and gender. These are just a small selection of the things being looked at out there in the world.
