LANSING — Michigan Right to Life delivered nearly 400,000 petition signatures to the Secretary of State Monday in an effort to get a commonly used abortion procedure banned in the state.

The petition, which would ban dilation and extraction, is intended to go directly to the Republican-controlled state House of Representatives and Senate and bypass a promised veto from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

“The 379,418 people who signed their names on this life-saving dismemberment ban should be confident that our pro-life majorities in the Michigan Legislature will pass the bill again, just like they did back in May," said Right to Life president Barbara Listing in a statement. "This is a wonderful Christmas present to the unborn."

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The House and Senate passed their own versions of the bills in May — which would make it illegal for a doctor to perform the D&E abortion, typically used in the second trimester — on straight party line votes.

But Gov. Whitmer promised she would veto the legislation if it reached her desk.

That promise led Michigan Right to Life to begin collecting petition signatures this summer to get a citizen-led initiative before the Legislature, which is expected to pass because of the Republican majorities in the House and Senate. The initiative is veto-proof and would automatically become law if the Legislature supports the ban.

It’s something that Right to Life has done successfully four times before when they’re trying to bypass a gubernatorial veto of abortion legislation, including: banning public funds from being used to pay for abortions for welfare recipients in 1987; requiring parental consent before a minor can get an abortion in 1990; defining a legal birth in 2004; and requiring women to purchase an additional rider on their health insurance if they want to have coverage for an abortion in 2013.

If the measure passes the Legislature, the ACLU of Michigan said Monday it will challenge the measure in court.

"It creates an undue burden on women seeking access to health care," said Merissa Kovach, spokeswoman for the ACLU. "There’s not medical reason for the ban. It makes abortion less safe. It’s unconstitutional."

Only two states — Mississippi and West Virginia — have D&E bans in effect. Similar bans in nine other states have either been stopped or are under review by federal courts, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks abortion policy.

Under the citizen-led legislative initiative, a group needs to gather 340,047 signatures from valid registered voters and the issue can be brought up again before the Legislature. The Legislature can pass the measure and it immediately becomes law without going to the governor, put its own version of the measure on the next statewide ballot, or do nothing and the petition will end up on the 2020 ballot for voters to decide.

Of the 26,594 abortions performed in Michigan in 2017, 1,777 were D&E abortions. In a D&E, a woman's uterus is dilated and the fetus is removed with a clamp. Republicans refer to the procedure as "dismemberment abortion," but doctors with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have testified that the procedure is safe and the medically necessary alternative for some abortions.

The Secretary of State's Bureau of Elections has several weeks to examine the signatures to make sure there are enough from valid voters and then the Legislature has 40 days to consider the initiative.

Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal.