Michigan governor signs executive order to protect abortion providers and patients from extradition

[James48]

Source: CNN

Michigan's Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order on Wednesday that limits her office from extraditing people to or from Michigan if they're facing criminal charges for obtaining, providing or assisting an abortion.

The order signed by Whitmer, who has been supportive of abortion rights, aims to protect women who travel to Michigan seeking an abortion and Michigan abortion providers "who will not have to fear being extradited for prosecution in another state for offering abortion services," according to a news release from her office.

A provider who conducts a telehealth visit from Michigan for a patient in another state and prescribes a medical abortion will also not be extradited, Whitmer's office told CNN. The order, however, would not apply to a person who performs an abortion while in a state where it is banned.

"I cannot in good conscience participate in other states' efforts to make it a crime to exercise a fundamental right or to punish health-care providers," Whitmer said in her executive order.




Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/13/politics/michigan-whitmer-executive-order-abortion/index.html

[Herx]

1. This is important

States are our only hope.

[FBaggins]

2. Can she even do that?

Sure... when the story was women crossing state lines to do something that is illegal in their home state but perfectly legal in Michigan - there's really no question of extradition. She hasn't committed a crime.

But if you're talking about a clinic doctor who commits a crime in some other state and then travels to Michigan? I'm not sure that the governor has an option in such a case. Nevada can't say "well... prostitution isn't illegal here, so we won't extradite him for committing the felony in your state".

[GregariousGroundhog]

3. The short answer is no.

The Constitution is pretty clear on this,

A person charged in any state with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another state, shall on demand of the executive authority of the state from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime.

There may exist exceptions (IE, Michigan need not extradite someone who is already imprisoned for a crime committed in Michigan until their sentence in Michigan is complete), but states cannot refuse extradition for political reasons.