Empower Wisconsin  | June 29, 2022

MADISON — Far left Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit Tuesday looking to kill Wisconsin’s oldest abortion ban.

The law, which dates back to early statehood, was effectively frozen for nearly 50 years following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling federalizing abortion protections. Last week’s Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturning Roe and leaving abortion laws up to the states brought Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion law back to life.

In his taxpayer-funded lawsuit, Kaul argues that ban has been supplanted by more recent abortion restrictions passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature but not enforced because of Roe. A 2015 ban on abortion after 20 weeks and others would be less restrictive than the 1849 law. Kaul contends the statutes “directly conflict with each other” and that it is “well settled that the older law cannot be enforced.”

“Wisconsin abortion providers cannot be held to two sets of diametrically opposed laws, and the Wisconsin people deserve clarity,” the Department of Justice’s complaint states.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said he’s confident the courts will “see through their tactics and uphold the law.”

“Abortion isn’t health care and for the governor and attorney general to try and use the courts to enact law is just as wrong as the original Roe v Wade decision over 50 years ago,” Vos said.

The lawsuit was strategically filed in Dane County Circuit Court, one of the more liberal judicial activist courts in the country.

Clearly campaigning on the lawsuit, Gov. Tony Evers held a press conference to talk about Kaul’s first of what is expected to be many taxpayer-funded legal challenges to Wisconsin’s abortion bans.

State Rep. Scott Allen (R-Waukesha) said the abortion limitations in Wisconsin law are about protecting preborn life.

“This is true for both the older and newer laws. The only difference is that one was written before Roe v. Wade, and the others were written afterwards,” Allen said. “To seek to abolish the protection of equal right to life for the preborn through a procedural move goes against the legislative intent of every single abortion law passed in Wisconsin. Evers and Kaul continue to show their blatant disregard for life.”