The administration of Gov. Tony Evers filed a motion Wednesday in one of two high-profile abortion cases before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, arguing that a “near-total” abortion ban is unconstitutional and seeking to join the lawsuit.
This month, the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases concurrently: Kaul v. Urmanski, which questions whether the state’s 1849 law effectively bans abortion, and Planned Parenthood v. Urmanski, which examines whether abortion is a right protected by the state Constitution. These cases aim to clarify the state’s stance on abortion, which was effectively banned following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision in 2022 until a Dane County judge ruled last year that the 1849 law doesn’t apply to abortion.
Evers emphasized the importance of restoring Roe protections and safeguarding “safe, legal abortion” access, especially in light of “looming Republican threats of enacting a national abortion ban and rolling back access to birth control and emergency contraception.”
“Every Wisconsinite should have access to the healthcare they need when they need it, and they should be able to make their own reproductive healthcare decisions without interference from politicians who know nothing about their faith, family, or circumstances,” Evers added.
Attorney General Josh Kaul, who filed the first case in 2022, stated that the Wisconsin Department of Justice seeks to intervene in the Planned Parenthood case to “help establish that the Wisconsin Constitution protects access to safe and legal abortion and does not permit the state legislature to ban nearly all abortions. The government should not control critical reproductive health decisions.”
The filing argues that the state plaintiffs in the Kaul case should be allowed to intervene because the questions are so closely connected that the outcome of one case could directly impact the other. The Kaul plaintiffs agree with the Planned Parenthood plaintiffs and want the chance to “fully argue why the Wisconsin Constitution would prohibit” a near-total abortion ban.
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