LANSING (WWJ) The attorney who filed a lawsuit to allow prosecutors to charge abortion cases is moving his fight to the appeals court with the goal of requiring Governor Whitmer to testify at an upcoming hearing on Michigan's abortion laws.
Attorney David Kallman is looking to appeal the decision after Oakland County Judge Jacob Cunningham ruled Whitmer did not have to testify in court at the hearing next week.
Kallman represents the prosecutors from Jackson and Kent counties—who are fighting to void an injunction that Whitmer won to keep abortion legal statewide during an ongoing court battle over Michigan’s 1931 abortion ban.
Kallman’s clients previously challenged a Court of Claims Ruling that the injunction binds them from prosecuting abortion providers. On August 1, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that the injunction does not prevent country prosecutors from charging abortion providers.
However, Governor Whitmer’s legal team stepped in and requested an emergency restraining order that same day that barred enforcement of Michigan’s 1931 ban on abortion. Oakland County Judge Jacob Cunningham granted her request within hours.
Kallman told WWJ’s Sandra McNeill that he has “the right” to question Whitmer in court at a hearing scheduled for next week.
“The law is crystal clear,” he said, “The Governor is the only plaintiff. She has to be harmed. We have the right to question her as to how she’s irreparably harmed. She isn’t. How is the governor harmed if a prosecutor prosecutes someone under a valid law?”
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In a press release earlier this month, Whitmer called the 1931 law "dangerous" and “extreme” as it “criminalizes abortion without exceptions for rape or incest and punishes doctors and nurses who offer reproductive health care.”
Under the emergency injunction, abortion remains legal in the state of Michigan for the time being.
The hearing on the injunction is scheduled for Wednesday, August 17. Whitmer has until Monday, August 15 to respond to Kallman’s subpoena.