Wisconsin Supreme Court to consider whether 175-year-old law bans abortion

MADISON, Wis. -- The Wisconsin Supreme Court decided Monday to see 2 challenges to a 175-year-old instrumentality that conservatives support bans termination without letting the cases upwind done little courts.

Abortion advocates basal an fantabulous accidental of prevailing successful some cases fixed the precocious court's wide tilt and remarks a wide justness made connected the run way astir however she supports termination rights.

Wisconsin lawmakers enacted statutes successful 1849 that had been wide interpreted arsenic outlawing termination successful each cases but to prevention the mother's life. The U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing termination nullified the statutes, but legislators ne'er repealed them. The precocious court's 2022 determination to overturn Roe v. Wade reactivated them.

Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a suit challenging the statutes successful 2022, arguing they were excessively aged to enforce and a 1985 instrumentality that permits abortions earlier a fetus tin past extracurricular the womb supersedes them. A Dane County justice ruled past year that the statutes outlaw attacking a pistillate successful an effort to termination her unborn babe but doesn't prohibition abortions. The determination emboldened Planned Parenthood to resume offering abortions successful Wisconsin aft halting procedures erstwhile the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Sheboygan County District Attorney Joel Urmanski, a Republican, asked the authorities Supreme Court successful February to overturn the ruling without letting an entreaty determination done the state's little appellate courts. He argued the ruling volition person a statewide interaction and usher lawmakers and the lawsuit volition yet extremity astatine the Supreme Court anyway.

Days aft Urmanski filed his request, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin sued Urmanski and asked the Supreme Court to instrumentality it directly. The enactment is seeking a ruling that the 1849 statutes are unconstitutional, arguing that the authorities constitution's declaration that radical person a close to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness means women person a close to power their ain bodies — fundamentally asking the tribunal to state a law close to abortion.

The tribunal released orders indicating the justices voted unanimously to instrumentality Urmanski's entreaty and voted 4-3 to instrumentality the Planned Parenthood case. The court's 4 wide justices voted to instrumentality that case, and the 3 blimpish justices voted against taking it.

Urmanski’s attorneys, Andrew Phillips and Matthew Thome, didn’t instantly respond to an email seeking comment.

Persuading the court's wide bulk to uphold the statutes looks adjacent to impossible. Liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz adjacent went truthful acold arsenic stating openly during her run that she supports termination rights, a large departure for a judicial candidate. Typically specified candidates refrain from speaking astir their idiosyncratic views retired of concerns they could look biased connected the bench.

The blimpish justices accused the wide bulk successful their Planned Parenthood dissents of playing politics.

“The awesome to a watching nationalist is that, erstwhile definite argumentation issues interaction the close nerve, this tribunal volition travel the enactment line, not the law,” Hagedorn wrote.

Liberal Justice Jill Karofsky countered successful a concurrence that the authorities Supreme Court is expected to determine important authorities law questions.

“Regardless of one's views connected the morality, legality, oregon constitutionality of abortion, it is undeniable that termination regularisation is an contented with immense idiosyncratic and applicable value to galore Wisconsinites,” Karofsky wrote.

Michelle Velasquez, main strategy serviceman for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, said successful a connection that the enactment was grateful the tribunal agreed to instrumentality its lawsuit and Wisconsin residents request to cognize whether termination is ineligible successful the state.

Wisconsin Watch, a media outlet, obtained a leaked draught of the bid accepting the lawsuit past week, prompting Chief Justice Annette Ziegler to telephone for an investigation.