Wisconsin Supreme Court strikes down abortion-related law

The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal majority on Wednesday struck down an 1849 state law widely interpreted as a criminal abortion ban.

In an opinion joined by four of the seven members of the court, Justice Rebecca Dallet wrote that the Legislature “impliedly repealed” the statute.

“We conclude that comprehensive legislation enacted over the last 50 years regulating in detail the ‘who, what, where, when and how’ of abortion so thoroughly covers the entire subject of abortion that it was meant as a substitute for the 19th century near-total ban on abortion,” she wrote.

After Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, questions about the enforceability of the 176-year-old law led providers to stop offering abortions. Clinics resumed providing the care after a Dane County court said the law doesn’t bar consensual medical abortion and focuses on feticide, which is when battery results in the end of a pregnancy.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court heard arguments in the case last November. Each of the three conservative justices wrote a dissent.

“The majority opinion is a jaw-dropping exercise of judicial will, placing personal preference over the constitutional roles of the three branches of our state government and upending a duly enacted law,” Justice Annette Ziegler wrote.

Gov. Tony Evers called the ruling “a win for women and families, a win for healthcare professionals who want to provide medically accurate care to their patients, and a win for basic freedoms in Wisconsin.”

Republican Party of Wisconsin Chairman Brian Schimming said the “issue should be resolved in the Legislature and by voters, not by far-left justices parading as legislators.”

Michelle Velasquez, chief strategy officer at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, called the ruling “an important step forward in ensuring access to abortion.”

“We will continue working to protect and expand reproductive freedom in Wisconsin so that everyone who needs comprehensive reproductive healthcare in our state can get the nonjudgmental and compassionate care they deserve,” she said.

Velasquez noted that the court has yet to decide on Planned Parenthood’s request to find a right to abortion in the state’s constitution.

This article first appeared in the Wisconsin Health News daily email newsletter. Sign up for your free trial here.