Wisconsin Governor and Attorney General Join Lawsuit Asking Wisconsin Supreme Court to Declare Abortion a ‘Constitutional Right’

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul have joined a lawsuit by Planned Parenthood seeking to enshrine abortion 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 asking the court to declare abortion a constitutional right. “Despite all the progress made to restore abortion care since the overturning of (Roe v. Wade), the protections afforded by the Wisconsin Constitution remain unknown,” Tanya Atkinson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, told reporters at the time. “Wisconsin residents deserve the ability to make decisions that shape their future, to make decisions about if and when they become parents. And they deserve to know that this right is protected by our state constitution.”

Now Evers and Kaul have announced that they will join the lawsuit, in addition to another lawsuit filed by Kaul earlier this year asking the Supreme Court to rule on a pre-Roe vs. Wade law that states: “Any person, except the mother, who willfully destroys the life of an unborn child is guilty of a class H felony.”



After Deer was overturned, the law, originally written in 1849, went into effect. Dane County Circuit Judge Diane Schlipper subsequently ruled in December that the law refers to feticide — the act of killing a fetus committed by someone other than the child’s mother — but not to abortion. Sheboygan County District Attorney Joel Urmanski filed an appeal, prompting Planned Parenthood to attempt to make abortion a constitutional right through a state Supreme Court interpretation that would ensure abortion would remain available regardless of the 1849 law.

If Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit is successful, no law can be passed protecting unborn children from abortion without amending the state constitution. to delete abortion as a constitutional right.

Pro-Life Wisconsin, Wisconsin Right to Life, and Wisconsin Family Action attempted to stop the governor and attorney general from taking the case to the Supreme Court. In a recent joint press release in June, they stated, “There is no right to abortion in the Wisconsin Constitution, and it is the role of Wisconsin’s elected officials 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 attempting to circumvent the legislative process and weaponize the legal system to enshrine abortion access on demand. They are endangering the lives of Wisconsin’s most vulnerable….” 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 have promised from the day the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe came out that I would never stop fighting for Wisconsin women and their reproductive freedom, and I will not stop,” said Governor Evers. “Wisconsinians 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’ve been there.”

Kaul added: “We seek to intervene in this case to help establish that the Wisconsin Constitution protects access to safe and legal abortion and does not allow the state legislature to ban almost all abortions. The government should not be able to control critical reproductive health decisions.”

The DOJ has jailed a pro-life grandmother for protesting the killing of unborn children. Please take 30 seconds to TELL CONGRESS: STOP THE DOJ FROM TARGETING PRO-LIFE AMERICANS.