(The Center Square) – The Sheboygan County district attorney is promising a quick appeal to the ruling that Wisconsin’s abortion ban only applies to feticide and not to consentual abortion.
District Attorney Joel Urmanski said the state’s 1849 abortion law is perfectly clear.
“I believe that, properly interpreted, the statute at issue prohibits performing abortions (including consensual abortions) unless the exception for abortions necessary to save the life of the mother applies,” Urmanski said in a statement.
A Dane County judge on Tuesday said Wisconsin’s abortion ban only applies to killing a baby, she said it does not apply to “consensual abortions.”
Urmanski said “I am obligated to comply with that ruling unless the decision is stayed pending appeal or ultimately reversed. To be clear, I disagree with and intend to appeal the decision.”
An appeal will send the case to Wisconsin’s liberal-majority Supreme Court.
Urmanski said the court should interpret the state’s abortion law. Not create a new one.
“In my view, the statute plainly applies to abortions and, while it may be that the citizens of the state of Wisconsin would be better served by a different statute, I do not believe it is my job or the role of the courts to make that determination. It is an issue for the Legislature and the governor to resolve,” he added.
Urmanski is getting applause for his decision to appeal.
Julaine Appling, president of Wisconsin Family Action said Wisconsin’s abortion ban means exactly what it says.
“We agree with Sheboygan County District Attorney Joel Urmanski’s statement that the statute plainly applies to consensual abortion, made very clear by the exception in the statute for the life of the mother,” Appling said in a statement. “No such exception would be necessary if the statute applied exclusively to feticide, the intentional killing of an unborn child without the woman’s consent. Additionally, the statute is titled ‘Abortion.’ Had the legislature intended the law to apply to feticide, it would have had a different title.”
