Mich. Comp. Laws Ann. § 333.2835 - Reporting obligations regarding abortions

Michigan requires physicians to submit reports to the Department of Community Health (“department”) within 7 days of performing abortions. Each abortion report must contain the following information:

• The woman’s age, marital status, race and whether she is of Hispanic ethnicity.
• The city, town, county, and state where the woman resided at the time she obtained the abortion.
• The type of facility and location in which the physician performed the abortion.
• The identity of the party that referred the woman to the physician for the abortion.
• The number of times that the woman has carried a pregnancy to term, experienced a “spontaneous abortion,” and/or aborted a pregnancy.
• The first day of the woman’s last menstruation, the gestation period, in weeks, of the fetus, and the means used to confirm the woman’s pregnancy.
• The method of abortion used by the physician.
• The fetus or embryo’s weight if determining such weight is possible.
• “Whether the fetus showed evidence of life when separated, expelled, or removed from the woman.”
• The date of the abortion.
• The “method and source of payment for the abortion.”
• A description of any physical complications or the woman’s death that resulted from the abortion if the physician observes the complications or death or learns of the complications or death prior to submitting the report.
• The signature and license number of the physician that performs the abortion.

The report may not contain any information that may identify the woman such as her name, social security number, or driver’s license number. Further, state agencies may not compare information in databases in a way that would result in identifying a woman who either obtained or is in the process of obtaining an abortion. The department must destroy the report and all copies 5 years after the date on which they receive the report.  

The department must create annual statistical reports that summarize the information received in the abortion reports. These reports only are for “medical and health purposes,” so they may “not be incorporated into the permanent official records of the system of vital statistics.”  Each statistical report must contain the following aggregate information:

• “The period of gestation in 4-week intervals from 5 weeks through 28 weeks.”
• The number of women 17 years old and younger that receive abortions.
• The number of physical complications that occur as a result of abortions.

Michigan prohibits the department or department employees from making any disclosures pertaining to the abortion or statistical reports that could result in the identification of a “person who is the subject of the report.” Violation of this disclosure prohibition constitutes a felony punishable by a $5,000 fine and/or a maximum prison sentence of 3 years.