Court Opinion

ID: 9687230
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:19:37.529634+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:25.044150
License: Public Domain

T. M. Burns, J.
(concurring in result, dissenting in part). I concur in the majority’s affirmance of defendant’s conviction. I dissent from the majority’s holding that the Michigan abortion statute, MCLA 750.14; MSA 28.204, has been rendered unconstitutional by virtue of improved surgical conditions and techniques.
For at least a decade, not only in Michigan, but, indeed, throughout the entire nation, the issues of abortion reform and the constitutionality of various abortion statutes have been a battleground of contentious opinion, legal, sociological, medical, political and theological. Argument and discussion of this emotionally charged issue has produced little more than invective and epithet. Not even the slightest modicum of consensus has been achieved among legislatures, lawyers, or jurists. *345The nation’s appellate judiciary has, for the most part, chosen to decide appeals from convictions of abortion on other than constitutional grounds.
Because of the gravity of the issue with which we are confronted and the danger of intrusion into the legislative function, we should approach the question of the constitutionality of MCLA 750.14; MSA 28.204, with extreme caution. Carman v Secretary of State, 26 Mich App 403 (1970); O’Connor v Eckhardt, 23 Mich App 150 (1970).
I am, therefore, unable to join the majority in holding the abortion statute unconstitutional upon the simplistic reasoning advanced in Judge Van Valkenburg’s opinion. The reasoning of the majority, when reduced to its essentials, is: (1) the predecessor of the existing statute was enacted in 1846 for the purpose of protecting the health and safety of the pregnant woman; (2) medical science has made great strides since 1846 and abortions are no longer so dangerous as at the time of the enactment of the original statute, and therefore, the state has insufficient interest to justify continued application of the statute; (3) ergo, the Michigan abortion statute is unconstitutional.
I assume that the holding of unconstitutionality refers to the United States Constitution. The majority has failed to point out the provision thereof which, in their opinion, would be violated by continued application of the statute. This is, of itself, sufficient to debilitate the majority opinion for, as was said by the United States Supreme Court in Pine Grove Twp v Talcott, 86 US (19 Wall) 666; 22 L Ed 227 (1874), a court in declaring an act unconstitutional must specify the exact clause of the constitution which is violated; or as was said by our Supreme Court in Bowerman v Sheehan, 242 Mich 95 (1928):
*346"The true test, then, seems to be, that, to declare a statute unconstitutional, 'we should be able to lay our finger on the part of the Constitution violated, and that the infraction should be clear, and free from a reasonable doubt.’ ”
I am unable to determine, either from express language or by inference, the constitutional provision held by the majority to have been violated by the law in question.
Returning to the discussion of the majority’s reasoning, I cannot agree that the abortion statute has been rendered unconstitutional by a change in the conditions existing in 1846 which impelled the Legislature to enact the law or that the law ceases to exist because the reason for its enactment has ceased to exist. This rule of cessante ratione legis, cessat et ipsa lex was widely used in English common law, but has had very limited acceptance in American jurisprudence. It has never been accepted in Michigan. Further, it is a rule of stare decisis and has no application to statutory law. Clearly, it cannot be used as a vehicle by which this Court may invalidate a statute.
It appears that the first premise in the majority’s reasoning is that the predecessor statute was enacted in 1846 for the protection of the health and safety of the pregnant woman. This premise is without basis in fact. It is no doubt true, as stated by the majority, that abortions were more dangerous in 1846 than they are at the present time.
However, in 1846, in a world which knew of neither anaesthesia nor antisepsis, all surgery, no matter how minor, was extremely hazardous. Surgeons were often ill-educated and at times were almost brutal with their patients. They possessed no effective means of allaying pain. The nature and treatment of shock had not yet been explored. *347Blood transfusions were mere experiments. Pathology, the science upon which the modern surgeon relies so heavily, was in its early stages of development. The conditions under which they worked would today be considered impossible. Instruments were primitive in design and few in number. The lighting by which the surgeon of 1846 worked would now be considered totally inadequate. Nonetheless, surgeons during this period were freely performing cranial, thoracic, and abdominal surgery without the slightest legislative interference.1
During this same period, the perils of childbirth were worsened by the spread of puerperal fever, a highly contagious infection which attacks the womb after childbirth when its interior is, so to say, a large raw wound. No effective means of disinfection against the disease were found until 1847, the year after the enactment of the predecessor statute. It can safely be said that in 1846 the hazards of childbirth were greater than those of abortion.
In view of the conditions existing at the time, how then can it be concluded by the majority that the Legislature enacted a statute prohibiting abortion, one of the less dangerous surgical operations, solely for the protection of the health and safety of the mother? It appears clear that the Legislature was not prompted solely by solicitude for the health and safety of the pregnant woman, but rather that the underlying reasons for enacting the 1846 statute were moral, ethical, philosophical and theological in nature.
No case law can be found on this question and modern writings on the subject are slanted according to the views and philosophies of the writers. *348The only objective and impartial treatise bearing on the reason for the enactment of abortion statutes is found in 1 Encyclopedia Britannica (1970 ed), Abortion, p 43, where it is said:
"Whether and to what extent induced abortions should be permitted, encouraged, or severely repressed is a social issue which has divided theologians, philosophers, and legislators since the dawn of Western civilization. Abortion (as well as infanticide) was apparently a common and socially accepted method of family limitation in the Greco-Roman world. Although Christian theologians early and vehemently condemned abortion, the application of severe criminal sanctions to deter its practice became common only in the 19th century. In English-speaking countries, abortion was typically outlawed absolutely except when necessary to preserve the life of the mother. As has often been the case with efforts to influence personal mores and sexual behaviour through the use of the criminal law, however, such restrictive sanctions were relatively ineffective; a significant segment of the population subject to the criminal prohibitions refused to recognize their propriety; abortion continued to be common despite its illegality and despite occasional prosecution and conviction of a small number of its practitioners.”
"Those who object to permissive abortion are motivated by religious or ethical concerns. Although Roman Catholic doctrinal discussion of the issue frequently focused on the metaphysical problem of the fetus’ ensoulment, 20th-century Catholic scholars have defended an absolute prohibition of abortion by emphasizing the same humanistic and ethical concerns about murder which have motivated nonreligious opponents of abortion: 'The most fundamental question involved in the long history of thought on abortion is: How do you determine the humanity of a being? To phrase the question that way is to put in comprehensive humanistic terms what the theologians either dealt with as an explicitly theological question under the heading of "ensoulment” or dealt with implicitly in their treat*349ment of abortion.’ (J. Noonan, 'Abortion and the Catholic Church; a Summary History,’ Natural Law Forum 85, 125 [1967]). Those who object to abortion on ethical grounds begin with the premise that all modern societies would condemn (and punish) infanticide; they then contend that, except where the mother’s life is at stake, there is no rational basis for distinguishing between the newborn infant and the fetus: the fetus grows, changes, and even reacts to its environment in the mother’s womb; the infant is in every sense only a potential member of society, just as the fetus is.”
As I have previously said, I do not believe that a statute may be held to be unconstitutional merely because there has been a change in the conditions which impelled its enactment. However, even if the act were passed for the protection of the health and welfare of the mother, and the medical arts have improved to the point where this is no longer sufficient to justify the continued application of the statute, it still may not be held invalid for that reason. It is clear that the statute was enacted at least primarily, if not wholly, for moral, ethical, theological and philosophical reasons. Considering the maelstrom of controversy in which the abortion issue is now immersed, it cannot be said that these reasons for the original enactment of the law no longer exist.
In Ver Hoven Woodward Chevrolet, Inc v Dunkirk, 351 Mich 190 (1958), the Court set forth the rigid test which must be applied in determining the constitutionality of a statute:
" 'Every reasonable presumption or intendment must be indulged in favor of the validity of an act, and it is only when invalidity appears so clearly as to leave no room for reasonable doubt that it violates some provision of the Constitution that a court will refuse to sustain its validity. A statute is presumed to be constitutional and it will not be declared unconstitutional *350unless clearly so, or so beyond a reasonable doubt ’ ” (Emphasis supplied.)
Even the most cursory examination of the majority opinion indicates that it has not been shown therein that MCLA 750.14; MSA 28.204, is unconstitutional "beyond a reasonable doubt”.
In In re Vickers, 371 Mich 114 (1963), the Court held that the statute does not permit the prosecution of a woman upon whom an abortion has been committed. The majority cites this case in support of their proposition that the abortion statute was enacted for the purpose of protecting the health and safety of the pregnant woman. It is clear, however, that the legislative purpose was more pragmatic and less altrustic than is claimed by the majority. It must be admitted that in virtually all prosecutions for abortion, the sole or principal witness is the woman upon whom the abortion has been committed. Obviously, if the woman were made subject to prosecution under the act, it would be impossible to convict most abortionists in cases where the woman was also prosecuted and chose to exercise her privilege against self-incrimination.
Upon a close examination of the majority opinion, I note that one sentence contains a statement that the state interest is counterbalanced and offset by the superior right of the woman and her physician to undertake such medical treatment as is deemed appropriate. It is inconceivable to me that it was the intention of the majority to so blithely dispose of a question of such magnitude and complexity. It appears to me that this statement was no more than an afterthought and that it was not the intention of the majority to decide this central issue of the entire abortion contro*351versy in a portion of one sentence. For this reason, I have no further comment.
I concur only in the affirmance of defendant’s conviction.

 Cartwright, Development of Modern Surgery (Thomas W. Crowell, 1968), Chapter 1.