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Committee hears providers and survivors urging a state-level FACE Act after federal pardons and local blockades
Summary
Supporters of Senate Bills 154 and 155 told the committee that recent pardons and ongoing clinic blockades make Michigan vulnerable and urged state protections mirroring the federal FACE Act; clinic operators, physicians and security witnesses described blockades, threats and ongoing trauma.
Senate testimony in the Civil Rights, Judiciary and Public Safety Committee gave extended attention to Senate Bills 154 and 155, a state-level Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act that sponsors say would protect patients and clinic staff from blockades, obstruction and violent interference.
Sponsor Senator Mallory McMorrow framed the bills as a response to recent federal developments: she cited a series of presidential pardons and pending federal repeal efforts and urged Michigan to adopt state protections so patients and providers would not rely solely on unstable federal enforcement. "We cannot rely on federal protections that are actively being dismantled and pardoned away," she said.
Clinic operators and providers described decades of harassment and several violent incidents. Renee Chelyan, founder and CEO of Northland Family Planning Centers in the Detroit area, recounted multiple blockades, bomb and death threats, and the August 2020 Sterling Heights blockade that the Department of Justice later prosecuted. She told senators that the January 24, 2025 presidential pardons undercut those federal convictions: "A few months later, on 01/24/2025, President Trump officially pardoned the violent offenders who attacked our clinic." Chelyan said the blockade had prevented urgent care, including a patient with fetal anomalies who needed immediate treatment.
Medical witnesses — including Dr. Neha Thawani (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists'Michigan) and Dr. Lakshmi Sundaresan (family physician and reproductive-health specialist) — described daily security burdens at clinics: locked doors, private security escorts, panic buttons and staff trauma from repeated harassment. Thawani called blockades and harassment "traumatic, sometimes dangerous, and are happening here in Michigan," and urged statutory protections.
Supporters emphasized the bills are narrowly tailored to health-care settings and do not supplant protections for places of worship; sponsor McMorrow said the bill was intended to focus on health-care centers and that protections for religious institutions reside in other statutes. Committee members asked technical questions about differences from the federal law, prosecutorial authority (the state bill authorizes the attorney general to bring charges), and the scope of protected activities and definitions of intimidation or interference.
The Clerk read written testimony cards from Planned Parenthood of Michigan and the ACLU of Michigan in support, along with opposition written testimony from Right to Life of Michigan and the Michigan Catholic Conference. No committee vote was held at the end of the hearing; the committee adjourned after completing scheduled testimony.
