Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers and state Attorney General Josh Kaul have joined a Planned Parenthood lawsuit seeking to have abortion codified as a right in the state constitution.
Last month, a draft order from the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed to hear a lawsuit from Planned Parenthood, requesting for the Court to declare abortion a constitutional right. “Despite all the progress that’s been made to resume abortion care since the overturning of (Roe v. Wade), the protections afforded under Wisconsin’s Constitution remain unknown,” Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin president and CEO Tanya Atkinson told reporters at the time. “Wisconsinites deserve the ability to make decisions that shape their future to make decisions about if or when they become a parent. And they deserve to know this right is protected by our state Constitution.”
Now, Evers and Kaul have announced they will be joining the lawsuit, in addition to another lawsuit filed earlier this year by Kaul, which asks the Supreme Court to rule on a pre-Roe v. Wade law which reads, “Any person, other than the mother, who intentionally destroys the life of an unborn child is guilty of a Class H felony.”
After Roe was overturned, the law, originally written in 1849, took effect. Dane County Circuit Judge Diane Schlipper then ruled in December that the statute refers to feticide — an act of homicide against a fetus committed by someone other than the child’s mother — but not abortion. Sheboygan County District Attorney Joel Urmanski filed an appeal, which prompted Planned Parenthood to begin trying to make abortion a constitutional right by way of a state Supreme Court interpretation, so abortion would remain available, regardless of the 1849 law.
If the Planned Parenthood lawsuit is successful, no law protecting preborn children from abortion could be enacted without the state constitution being modified to remove abortion as a constitutional right.
Pro-Life Wisconsin, Wisconsin Right to Life, and Wisconsin Family Action had sought to block the governor and AG from bringing the suit to the Supreme Court, stating in a recent combined press release in June, “There is no right to abortion in the Wisconsin Constitution, and it is the role of Wisconsin’s elected representatives to create policy on abortion – not the courts.”
Additionally, Heather Weininger, Executive Director of Wisconsin Right to Life, stated in the press release, “Radical pro-abortion providers are trying to bypass the legislative process and weaponize the court system to enshrine abortion access on demand. They are putting the lives of Wisconsin’s most vulnerable at risk….” Dan Miller of Pro-Life Wisconsin stated that Planned Parenthood wants the “Wisconsin Supreme Court to legislate from the bench by finding a ‘right’ to abortion in our State Constitution….”
“I promised from the day the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe was leaked that I’d never stop fighting for Wisconsin women and their reproductive freedom, and I won’t stop,” Gov. Evers said. “Wisconsinites have experienced what it means to live in a state that bans nearly all abortions, even in cases of rape and incest—they know because they lived it.”
Kaul added, “We are seeking to intervene in this case to help establish that the Wisconsin Constitution protects access to safe and legal abortion and does not permit the state legislature to ban nearly all abortions. The government should not be able to control critical reproductive health decisions.”
