Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin challenges abortion restrictions
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin filed a lawsuit Thursday that seeks to strike down two state abortion restrictions and recognize that the Wisconsin Constitution protects access to reproductive healthcare.
The lawsuit, filed in a Dane County court, challenges a requirement that patients wait 24 hours for abortion care, which means they have to make two separate visits to receive it. It also challenges a state law that makes physicians the only healthcare providers who can offer abortions.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin CEO Tanya Atkinson said the laws are not medically necessary.
“We are asking Wisconsin courts to recognize that these restrictions conflict with the freedoms and protections guaranteed to each of us under our state’s constitution,” she told reporters Thursday. “If we are successful, this will be a generational step forward for reproductive freedom in Wisconsin.”
In 2024, Planned Parenthood asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to weigh in on whether the state’s constitution protects abortion access. The court dismissed the request last year when it struck down an 1849 state law widely interpreted as a criminal abortion ban. The majority ruled that lawmakers “impliedly repealed” that law by enacting other abortion-related statutes over the past 50 years.
Diane Welsh, a partner at Pines Bach and counsel for the plaintiffs, said by finding other reasons the 1849 state law was invalid, the court didn’t need to address the constitutional issue.
“That still is very much a live question,” she said.
Wisconsin Family Action said in a statement it will “vigorously defend” the laws that Planned Parenthood is challenging.
“The right to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ doesn’t magically create some loophole for non-physicians to put women and children at risk,” Katie Crain, legislative and policy director, said in a statement.
This article first appeared in the Wisconsin Health News daily email newsletter. Sign up for your free trial here.