Wisconsin’s Evers vetoes 5 abortion bills

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin’s Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed five Republican-authored anti-abortion bills on Friday, two days after the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a Mississippi case that could curtail if not end a woman’s right to abortion.

Evers, who is making his support for abortion rights a key plank of his 2022 reelection campaign, had been widely expected to veto the measures passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature in October.

“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again today: as long as I’m governor, I will veto any legislation that turns back the clock on reproductive rights in this state — and that’s a promise,” Evers tweeted in announcing the vetoes.

Republican lawmakers, who do not have enough votes to override the vetoes, did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

One bill would have imposed criminal penalties on doctors who fail to give medical care in the rare circumstance in which a baby is born alive after an abortion attempt. A second bill would have required doctors to provide parents of fetuses and embryos that test positive for a congenital condition information about the condition. A third proposal would have prohibited abortions based on a fetus’ sex, race or national origin.

A fourth measure would have reduced funding for abortion providers by prohibiting them from being certified as a Medicaid provider. The fifth vetoed bill would have required doctors to tell women seeking a medication-induced abortion that she could change her mind after ingesting the first dose and continue the pregnancy.