Ex-wife reveals Michigan justice took her to an abortion clinic
As Herschel Walker runs for Senate on an anti-abortion platform despite multiple ex-girlfriends saying he paid for them to have abortions, now a similar scandal is playing out in Michigan as voters prepare to vote on enshrining abortion rights in the state Constitution.
The ex-wife of Michigan Supreme Court Justice Brian Zahra spoke with NBC News about the abortion she says he paid for in 1983, when they were dating.
Planned Parenthood has harshly criticized the justice, describing him as "an extremist who is endorsed by the anti-abortion organization, Michigan Right to Life."
"Zahra made his stance clear when he dissented on the approval of the Reproductive Freedom for All ballot proposal (Prop 3), indicating that he considers his own personal beliefs in court decisions, instead of the law," the organization said.
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Alyssa Jones, who went by Alyssa Watson at the time, said Zahra found a suburban Detroit abortion clinic in the yellow pages and drove her to a May 18 appointment.
"In early September, thirty-nine years after Jones says she terminated the pregnancy, Zahra voted to block a ballot initiative — known as Proposal 3 — that would enshrine abortion rights in the Michigan Constitution, arguing in a dissenting opinion that insufficient spacing between some words on the petition rendered it incompatible with Michigan law," NBC reported. "According to campaign finance records, a prominent anti-abortion group in the state is currently spending to help him win another term."
Proposal 3 garnered over 750,000 signatures.
"Jones shared the details of her experience exclusively with NBC News in two interviews, one in late October and one at her home on Tuesday. She said she was moved to do so after a series of national and state events, including the Supreme Court’s decision this year to overturn federal protections for abortion rights and Zahra’s vote against the Michigan ballot proposal," NBC reported. "Jones said she was incensed by what she views as hypocrisy by Zahra, since she believes the termination of her pregnancy ultimately helped him build a successful law career, and that his vote was an attempt to deny others a similar choice."
Also similar to the Walker scandal, the woman alleging hypocrisy has receipts.
"Jones confided in a friend in 1983, within months of the abortion, the friend said. And she told her current husband, Dennis Jones, shortly after they began dating in 1994, he said. Medical records show she disclosed an abortion and two miscarriages to her doctor more than five years ago," NBC reported. "In August, a county judge temporarily blocked enforcement of a 1931 Michigan law that bans abortion except in cases when it is 'necessary to preserve the life' of a woman, but Jones said she worries about how Zahra would rule on that and other related issues."
Zahra was appointed to the court by then-Rov. Rick Snyder, a Republican.
Read the full report.
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