(The Center Square) – A little more than a week after Planned Parenthood started offering abortions in Wisconsin again, a group of pro-life advocates want prosecutors in Madison and Milwaukee to enforce the state’s abortion law.
Leaders from Wisconsin Right to Life, Wisconsin Family Action and Pro-Life Wisconsin told reporters at the State Capitol on Tuesday that Wisconsin’s pre-Roe abortion law is still on the books and needs to be enforced.
“Why is this happening? Because both District Attorney [Ismael] Ozanne and [John] Chisholm have shared publicly that they will not enforce this law,” Heather Weininger, executive director of Wisconsin Right to Life, said. “Now is not the time to be selective in which laws we enforce and which laws we don’t enforce in Wisconsin.”
Ozanne and Chisholm both said after the end of row they would not prosecute doctors for performing abortions in Wisconsin. A Dane County judge over the summer also said Wisconsin’s pre-Roe abortion law is unenforceable, saying it only applies to the killing of babies, not unborn babies.
Despite the comments from the judge, Dan Miller with Pro-Life Wisconsin, so there’s been no official ruling on abortion in the state.
“Although Wisconsin’s abortion ban has been challenged in state court by Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, the Dane County Circuit Court has not issued a final ruling that [Wisconsin’s abortion law] is unenforceable, and has not placed an injunction on it,” Miller said. “Furthermore, this law has not been repealed or modified by the state legislature, therefore the law remains intact.”
Julianne Appling with Wisconsin Family Action said by refusing to enforce the laws, Ozanne, Chisholm and Planned Parenthood seem to think they are above the law.
“We are collectively as pro-life leaders in our state calling on the DAs in Milwaukee County and in Dane County to do their jobs,” Appling said. “They swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the Wisconsin Constitution and that entails enforcing laws that they agree with or don’t agree with.”
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin declared Wisconsin’s abortion law unenforceable when it announced the return of abortion services last week. Part of the declaration was to resume abortions in the state and part was aimed at getting a legal challenge to put Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion law in front of the Supreme Court faster.
