Pro-abortion legislators in Wisconsin proposed a package of bills on Wednesday that would expand access to abortion in the state.
“The Reproductive Freedom Act restores the power of individuals to make their own pregnancy decisions, healthcare decisions, removing medically unnecessary restrictions and bans on abortion care,” said Rep. Francesca Hong, who is sponsoring the act with Sen. Kelda Roys. This is not honest.
The package of pro-abortion bills would repeal pro-life laws that were in place under Roe v. Wade, including a law protecting preborn children from abortion after 20 weeks and parental consent requirements for abortions on minors. It would also require health insurance coverage of abortion, allow abortion pill use without an examination by a doctor, and allow abortion pill use at home alone. One bill in the package even targets pro-life pregnancy centers, attempting to force them to refer clients for abortion.
In addition, one of the bills would instruct doctors to give specific information to women concerning abortion. Though the pro-abortion legislators say the information would have to be accurate, abortion facilities have been known to mislead women on fetal development as well as the details of abortion procedures.
Eliminating the law that protects preborn children after 20 weeks would likely allow abortion in Wisconsin throughout pregnancy, which is an extreme position that most Americans oppose. A January 2023 Knights of Columbus-Marist Poll found that nearly 80% of Americans do not want abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy, as was allowed under Roe. Sixty-nine percent of Americans want abortion restricted before six months. An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist National Poll from April found that only “22% of Americans believe abortion should be available at any time during pregnancy.”
In addition, removing safety requirements from the abortion pill puts women in danger. The abortion pill has been found to be four times more dangerous than a first-trimester surgical abortion and taking the abortion pill without first undergoing an exam by a doctor could mean an ectopic pregnancy is not properly diagnosed, putting the woman’s life at risk.
According to the Wisconsin Examiner, the bill package is not expected to pass the Wisconsin Legislature, which is Republican-led. The Wisconsin Senate recently passed two pro-life bills, including one that would clarify that procedures intended to prevent the death of the pregnant woman and which are not intended to cause the death of the preborn child are not abortions. The other bill would give about $1 million in public funding each fiscal year to Choose Life Wisconsin, which supports pregnancy resource centers.
Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Wisconsin’s 1849 law prohibiting abortion was put back into effect until Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit against it. In July, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Diane Schlipper ruled that the 1849 law doesn’t apply to abortion but only to “feticide,” which was defined as an “act or instance of killing a fetus, usually by assaulting and battering.” Planned Parenthood is currently committing abortions again, but the case is expected to make it to the state Supreme Court.
“This pre-Roe statute says nothing about abortion – there is no such thing as an ’1849 Abortion Ban’ in Wisconsin,” Schlipper’s ruling stated. However, abortion is feticide because it is literally the intentional and direct killing of a human fetus — a child inside the womb.
