Planned Parenthood in Wisconsin to resume abortion care after judge’s ruling
Planned Parenthoods in Wisconsin will resume abortions on Monday 18 September, the organization announced on Thursday, after a prolonged legal battle over a Wisconsin 19th-century abortion law that has blocked abortions across the state.
The announcement that abortions will resume at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin clinics in Milwaukee and Madison comes months after a judge ruled that a 1849 law does not apply to what she called “consensual abortions”. Instead, the law bans people from committing feticide, or killing a fetus, usually “by assaulting and battering the mother”, the Dane county judge Diane Schlipper wrote in her July ruling.
“There is no such thing as an ‘1849 Abortion Ban’ in Wisconsin,” Schlipper ruled.
The recommencement of services marks a massive victory for abortion rights supporters in Wisconsin, where abortion providers stopped performing the procedure amid the confusion over the 1849 law. It also promises to ease the strain on abortion patients across the midwest, since a blanket of abortion bans has choked off access for patients in the region and sent many fleeing to overwhelmed abortion clinics on the coasts.
Tony Evers, the Democratic governor of Wisconsin, hailed Planned Parenthood’s decision.
“This is critically important news for Wisconsin women and patients across our state who, for a year now, have been unable to access the healthcare they need when and where they need it,” he said in a statement. “I will keep fighting like hell every day until Wisconsinites have the right to make their own healthcare decisions without interference from politicians who don’t know anything about their lives, their family, or their circumstances.”
Litigation over the 1849 ban is ongoing. It is expected to ultimately end up at the Wisconsin supreme court, which is controlled by liberals.