I never thought I’d see the day, but members of the Livingston County Commissioners are all set to proclaim our county a refuge for reproductive freedom.
It’s more than symbolic. They plan to tell the sheriff and county prosecutor not to follow any law that infringes on the reproductive freedom of Michigan residents.
Of course, the panel of nine doddering old men who run our county probably don’t realize that that’s what they’re about to do. They only care about gun rights and mistakenly believe a resolution on the agenda of the public safety committee at 6 p.m. on Monday, April 17, is just about gun rights.
But that’s not what their “constitutional county” resolution actually says.
I’ll get to the fine print in a minute, but the whole idea of a “constitutional county” was dreamed up by a guy in Montana who is hawking $25 VCR tapes about it. No legal theory backs it up. You won’t find it in any part of the Michigan or U.S. Constitution, but that probably won’t keep our commission from approving the resolution.
The resolution references gun rights a lot, but it also says, “a ‘Constitutional County’ is defined as a place of refuge for the law-abiding citizens in regards to the citizens’ rights under The Constitution of the United States of America and Michigan Constitution including but not limited to the Second Amendment right to Keep and Bear Arms.”
It goes on to say that “it is the desire of this Board to reaffirm its commitment and support of The Constitution of the United States of America as well as the Constitution of the State of Michigan, including all amendments which protect Livingston County citizens’ individual rights.” It goes on to tell the county sheriff and the county prosecutor that they should not enforce “any statute, law, rule, order, or regulation that is contrary to the rights established by The Constitution of the United States of America and the State of Michigan Constitution.” And it says the county will not spend any money or use any resources to enforce such laws.
Maybe it escaped the commissioners’ attention, but as of last November, Article 1, Section 28 of the Michigan Constitution declares, “Every individual has a fundamental right to reproductive freedom, which entails the right to make and effectuate decisions about all matters relating to pregnancy, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion care, miscarriage management, and infertility care.”
When the resolution references “all amendments” of the Michigan Constitution, it clearly includes the right to abortion.
And when it tries to tell the sheriff and county prosecutor not to enforce laws infringing on our rights, it clearly means that this county will ignore federal court rulings that try to ban the sale of abortion drugs nationwide. After all, that infringes on a right protected by the Michigan Constitution.
Think about it. If this resolution passes, women from all over the nation will be able to flock to Livingston County to obtain abortion drugs that are outlawed everywhere else. We might even become the abortion capital of Michigan!
And all thanks to our county commissioners who think they are just pandering to their base about guns.
