'Good news': Wisconsin judge’s order grants the advancement of lawsuit challenging abortion ban

07 July 2023

A Wisconsin judge made way for legal action against a restrictive abortion ban to move forward Friday, The Messenger reports.

Per the report, Wisconsin Democratic Governor Tony Evers, the state's Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul and "doctors that seek not being prosecuted for performing abortions," filed a lawsuit to "repeal the ban," and with Dane County Circuit Judge Diane Schlipper's ruling — the suit now has a chance at success.

Schlipper, according to Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, "denied a motion to dismiss the lawsuit from defendant Sheboygan District Attorney Joel Urmanski, who argued in May that Attorney General Josh Kaul, who brought the lawsuit, was asking a judge to perform the duties of lawmakers and was ignoring the fact that lawmakers have put forward language to repeal the original abortion law and decided against passing it."

Wisconsin Journal Sentinel reports "the law in question" the Democratic state leaders challenged in June 2022, is "a statute written in 1849, making it a "173-year-old ban."

The judge wrote in her order, "There is no such thing as an '1849 Abortion Ban' in Wisconsin. A physician who performs a consensual medical abortion commits a crime only 'after the fetus or unborn child reaches viability," emphasizing "the law does not prohibit consensual medical abortions."

Furthermore, the news outlet notes:

Schlipper in her Friday order rejecting Urmanski's argument said doctors deserve an answer to which abortion-related state law they should follow now that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, putting back into effect laws in Wisconsin that were dormant under the 50-year decision.

In response to Schlepper's ruling, Evers tweeted: "This is good news and a critical step in our fight to end our state’s criminal abortion ban and restore the reproductive freedom women had in Wisconsin until #SCOTUS overturned #Roe last June. We must restore access to safe, legal abortion in Wisconsin."

The Messenger's full report is available at this link. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's report is here.

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