Wisconsin remains a battleground state for abortion rights, with conservative officials fighting to increase restrictions on abortion following the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v Wade in 2022.
After the draft opinion overturning Roe was released, Democratic Governor Tony Evers called a special session to overturn an 1849 law banning abortion without exceptions for rape, incest, or the health of the parent. The only exception was to save the life of the parent, meaning complications that would cause permanent damage – for example, being unable to have children in the future – would not qualify.
The Republican-controlled legislature adjourned in just 15 seconds, leaving the 175-year-old law in place.
Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction blocking the enforcement of the 1849 law one week after the Dobbs decision. The Dane County judge overseeing the case ruled that the 1849 law only applied to feticide – when someone attacks a pregnant person with the goal of killing the fetus – not to elective abortions, and could not be used to charge doctors or pregnant people for providing or receiving abortions.
The Republican Sheboygan County District Attorney Joel Urmanski has appealed the decision to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, where he hopes to convince the liberal majority that the law does ban nearly all abortions. Wisconsin Senate Republican Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu told the AP News he “was pleased to see” Urmanski appeal the decision, adding that “If the ban is ultimately invalidated, Republican lawmakers will consider other legislation.”
After Planned Parenthood started offering abortion services again, Republican legislators followed through on the promise. They introduced several bills that would increase criminal penalties for providing an abortion and increase funding for crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) that frequently provide false or misleading information.
The bills would have functionally ended the University of Wisconsin’s OB/GYN program by banning the university from teaching its students how to provide abortion care. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requires that OB/GYN programs offer training in abortion procedures, though people with religious or moral objections can opt-out. The Wisconsin bill was even more extreme than Project 2025, which wants training in abortion procedures to be opt-in rather than opt-out, though both proposals would reduce the number of qualified physicians who are trained in providing abortions.
In exchange for these, the bills offered weak protections for patients and doctors treating a miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy, a grant to support families trying to adopt children, and allowed a pregnant person to claim their fetus as a dependent for tax purposes.
When those bills failed, Republicans tried again. The State Assembly passed a 14-week abortion ban by a narrow margin this January. Wisconsin’s existing abortion law bans abortions after the point of fetal viability, typically around 22-24 weeks. Governor Evers promised to veto the bill, and the Wisconsin Senate never took it up for a vote.
Even so, abortion access remains tenuous in the state. Republican officials show no sign they are wavering in their commitment to restricting abortions, and the state Supreme Court has agreed to take up DA Urmanski’s appeal regarding the 1849 law.