Wisconsin Supreme Court Votes 4–3 To Invalidate State Abortion Law

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,

The Wisconsin Supreme Court voted 4–3 on July 2 to strike down the state’s 176-year-old almost-total ban on abortion.

Justice Rebecca Frank Dallet wrote the majority opinion.

“We conclude that comprehensive legislation enacted over the last 50 years regulating in detail the ‘who, what, where, when, and how’ of abortion so thoroughly covers the entire subject of abortion that it was meant as a substitute for the 19th century near-total ban on abortion,” Dallet wrote.

“Accordingly, we hold that the legislature impliedly repealed [Section] 940.04(1) as to abortion, and that [Section] 940.04(1) therefore does not ban abortion in the State of Wisconsin.”

The new ruling came three years after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Dobbs overturned Roe v. Wade (1973), holding that the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee a right to abortion. The rule returned the regulation of the procedure to the states.

The Dobbs ruling prompted a blizzard of state-level legislation either to restrict or preserve abortion access.

Planned Parenthood, along with several women using pseudonyms, asked the court in February 2024 to invalidate Wisconsin’s current abortion law.

They argued that it violated the rights of patients and medical doctors under the state’s constitution.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed in July 2024 to hear two lawsuits challenging the state’s 1849 abortion law. The statute states that anyone “other than the mother, who intentionally destroys the life of an unborn child is guilty” of a felony.

“In granting this case, this court is doing what many other state courts have done, both before and after Dobbs v. Jackson—considering a state constitutional challenge to an abortion-related statute,” Justice Jill Karofsky wrote in the court order a year ago.

“Deciding important state constitutional questions is not unusual – it’s this court’s job.”