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On October 4, the Michigan Court of Appeals reversed the decision. "We conclude that in this state, the defense should also extend to the protection of a fetus, viable or nonviable, from an assault against the mother," the court ruled in a 3-0 decision.

The New York Times notes that the ruling, which deliberately doesn't get into when a fetus becomes a person, will be a touchpoint in national debates. "About half the states have laws making assaults that cause miscarriages or stillbirths criminal," the paper says. "In debates in Congress last year about a possible federal version of the law, opponents understood the central issue to be [the outlawing of] abortion and not [reducing] crime."

Still, even prochoice activists say the Michigan Court of Appeals' decision was right. After all, it defends the right of the mother to choose whether to keep her pregnancy. "When a woman is carrying a wanted pregnancy and she has made that decision, which is constitutionally protected, she has the right to protect the embryo or fetus," says Center for Reproductive Law and Policy lawyer Linda Rosenthal.

But prolife activists may still have reason to seize on the decision. "The opinion certainly does recognize the sense that the fetus was another separate from the mother," says Kurr's lawyer, Gail Rodwan.

More articles on abortion:

• Alabama rally set for 'unborn rights' | A black group demonstrates on behalf of what it calls the "civil rights of the unborn" in Birmingham, Ala., the scene of civil rights marches in the 1960s (The Washington Times)
  
  
• Also: Abortion hits blacks hardest, activists say (The Birmingham News)
  
  
• Also: Abortion is black genocide, marchers say (Associated Press)
  
  
• One in three | Abortion often the subject of secretiveness and widely thought of as relatively rare, is actually a commonplace experience for women in Britain (The Guardian, London)

Anti-violence music group under fire:

• Schools urged to bar group's religious event | New Jersey Coalition for Free Exercise of Religion claims evangelical group uses anti-violence programs as "stealth tactics" to proselytize to students (Associated Press)
  
  
• Two schools cancel group's assemblies | Two St. Louis area schools on Monday canceled assemblies with the anti-violence group Rage Against Destruction after accusations surfaced that the group was a front for Christian televangelist Joyce Meyer (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
  
  
• Teaneck cancels 'sectarian' anti-violence assembly (The Record, Bergen, N.J.)
  
  
• Earlier: Schools urged to bar group's religious event (The Record, Bergen, N.J.)

Missions and ministry:

• Missionary aches for residents of Ivory Coast | When she was forced to leave the Ivory Coast, Meg McFadden's heart ached for the people she left behind (Associated Press)
  
  
• Churchgoers flock to be delivered from evil in city exorcisms | A husband and wife team are holding monthly exorcisms at their North Staffordshire church to rid members of their congregation of evil spirits (The Sentinel, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)
  
  
• Graham's daughter leads Christian expo | Choral groups also join up to 10,000 at Downtown venue for three-day event (The Indianapolis Star)
  
  

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October (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46