UNITED STATES NEWS

Wisconsin judge: Lawsuit to repeal abortion ban can continue

Jul 7, 2023, 11:17 AM | Updated: 11:56 am

MADISON, Wis. (AP) —

A judge refused Friday to toss out a lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s 174-year-old abortion ban, keeping the case inching toward a final decision in a perennial presidential battleground state where abortion has become a key issue.

Wisconsin lawmakers enacted statutes outlawing abortion in all cases except to save the mother’s life in 1849, a year after the territory became a state. The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion nullified the ban, but legislators never repealed it. Then, the high court’s decision last June to overturn Roe v. Wade reactivated the statutes.

Republicans and their conservative allies across the country praised the reversal, but the decision energized Democratic voters. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers parlayed anger over the ruling into a re-election victory in November. The issue figures to be front and center again in the state as the 2024 presidential campaign ramps up.

The state’s Democratic attorney general, Josh Kaul, has vowed to restore abortion access. He filed a lawsuit in Dane County days after Roe v. Wade was overturned, seeking to repeal the ban.

Kaul argues that the ban is too old to enforce and that a 1985 law that permits abortions before a fetus can survive outside the womb supersedes the ban. Three doctors later joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs, saying they fear being prosecuted for performing abortions.

Kaul has named district attorneys in the three counties where abortion clinics operated until the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade as defendants. One of them, Sheboygan County’s Republican district attorney, Joel Urmanski, filed a motion seeking to dismiss the case in December.

Urmanski maintained that it’s a stretch to argue that the ban is so old it can no longer be enforced and that the 1985 law and the ban complement each other. Since the newer law outlaws abortions post-viability, it simply gives prosecutors another charging option, he contends.

Kaul’s attorneys have countered that the two laws are in conflict and doctors need to know where they stand.

Dane County Circuit Judge Diane Schlipper explained in a written ruling denying Urmanski’s dismissal motion that she interprets the 1849 law as prohibiting people from killing fetuses by assaulting or battering the mother. The law doesn’t apply to consensual abortion, she wrote.

That means the doctor plaintiffs could ultimately win a declaration that they can’t be prosecuted for performing abortions and hence the case should continue, Schlipper wrote.

Andrew Phillips and Jacob Curtis, two of Urmanski’s attorneys, didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment on the decision.

The ruling means that the lawsuit will continue in Schlipper’s courtroom. Regardless of how the judge ultimately rules, the case carries so much weight for the future of the state that it almost certainly will rise to the state Supreme Court, which is exactly where Democrats want it.

Liberal justices will control the court with a 4-3 majority after progressive Janet Protasiewicz is sworn in on Aug. 1. She stopped short on the campaign trail of saying how she would rule on a challenge to the 1849 ban but said repeatedly she supports abortion rights.

Evers tweeted Friday that Schlipper’s decision to allow the case to continue is “good news and a critical step” toward restoring reproductive rights.

United States News

Associated Press

Former top Ohio utility regulator surrenders in $60 million bribery scheme linked to energy bill

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s former top utility regulator surrendered Monday in connection with a $60 million bribery scheme related to a legislative bailout for two Ohio nuclear power plants that has already resulted in a 20-year prison sentence for a former state House speaker. Sam Randazzo, former chair of the Public Utilities Commission of […]

20 minutes ago

Associated Press

Fire blamed on e-bike battery kills 1, injures 6 in Bronx apartment building

NEW YORK (AP) — One person was killed and six others were injured when a fire blamed on an electric bicycle battery tore through a New York City apartment, officials said Monday. The fire started at around 7 p.m. Sunday in a 10th-floor apartment in a public housing complex in the Bronx, a Fire Department […]

2 hours ago

FILE - Office of Management and Budget director Shalanda Young speaks about the possible government...

Associated Press

White House warns Congress the US is out of money, nearly out of time to avoid ‘kneecap’ to Ukraine

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Monday sent Congress an urgent warning about the need to approve tens of billions of dollars in military and economic assistance to Ukraine, saying Kyiv’s war effort to defend itself from Russia’s invasion may grind to a halt without it. In a letter to House and Senate leaders […]

6 hours ago

Associated Press

Shooting at home in Washington state kills 5 including the suspected shooter, report says

ORCHARDS, Wash. (AP) — Five people were killed in a shooting at a Washington state home where police said the deceased included the suspected shooter, according to a news report. The Clark County Sheriff’s Office said officers found the bodies inside a home in Orchards, Washington, following a call around 1 p.m. Sunday, KGW8-TV reported. […]

8 hours ago

Associated Press

Israel orders evacuations as it widens offensive but Palestinians are running out of places to go

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel’s military renewed calls Monday for mass evacuations from the southern town of Khan Younis, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge in recent weeks, as it widened its ground offensive and bombarded targets across the Gaza Strip. The expanded operations, following the expiration of a […]

8 hours ago

The Salt Lake Temple in Salt Lake City is shown on April 18, 2019. A top Mormon church official lea...

Associated Press

Takeaways from The AP’s investigation into the Mormon church’s handling of sex abuse cases

HAILEY, Idaho (AP) — Paul Rytting had been director of the Risk Management Division at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for around 15 years when a 31-year-old church member told him that her father, a former bishop, had sexually abused her when she was a child. Rytting flew from church headquarters in […]

11 hours ago

Sponsored Articles

Follow @KTAR923...

West Hunsaker at Morris Hall supports Make-A-Wish Foundation in Arizona

KTAR's Community Spotlight this month focuses on Morris Hall and its commitment to supporting the Make-A-Wish Foundation in Arizona.

...

SCHWARTZ LASER EYE CENTER

Key dates for Arizona sports fans to look forward to this fall

Fall brings new beginnings in different ways for Arizona’s professional sports teams like the Cardinals and Coyotes.

...

DAY & NIGHT AIR CONDITIONING, HEATING AND PLUMBING

Importance of AC maintenance after Arizona’s excruciating heat wave

An air conditioning unit in Phoenix is vital to living a comfortable life inside, away from triple-digit heat.

Wisconsin judge: Lawsuit to repeal abortion ban can continue