Press Release: Gov. Evers Slams Republicans’ New Effort to Restrict Reproductive Healthcare in Wisconsin

MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers today slammed Wisconsin Republicans’ newly announced effort to restrict reproductive and abortion healthcare in Wisconsin. The Republican move comes just weeks after a court decision finally restored access to abortion in Wisconsin more than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and upended nearly 50 years of a constitutional right to abortion that Wisconsinites and Americans had relied upon for nearly five decades. 

The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to overturn Roe v. Wade threw reproductive freedom in Wisconsin into chaos due to confusion caused by an outdated 1849-era statute enacted before the Civil War and at a time when Wisconsin women did not have the right to vote. A recent court ruling determined the 1849-era law did not apply to medical abortions, enabling healthcare providers to resume providing abortion care in recent weeks. 

Wisconsinites went for over a year without abortion care services, with few exceptions, even as Wisconsin Republicans rejected repeated efforts to repeal the 1849-era law and gaveled out of multiple special sessions called by Gov. Evers aiming to restore access to reproductive healthcare statewide. 

Now, after abortion care recently resumed in Wisconsin, Wisconsin Republicans today announced plans to launch a new effort to seek a potential 12-week abortion ban in 2024. Gov. Evers, who has spent five years fighting every Republican effort to limit access to reproductive healthcare, slammed the move in a video message to Wisconsinites. 

“We’ve had two statewide elections that were referenda on Wisconsin Republicans’ attacks on reproductive healthcare, and guess what—the people who believe Wisconsinites should be able to make their own reproductive healthcare decisions won,” said Gov. Evers. “Wisconsinites had 50 years of rights stripped away from them by the U.S. Supreme Court and then spent over a year waiting for those rights to be restored. Now, weeks after Wisconsinites finally regained that reproductive freedom, Republicans plan to launch a new effort to take some of that freedom away. 

“The bottom line for me is this: Wisconsinites should be able to make their own reproductive healthcare decisions without interference from politicians who don’t know anything about their lives, their family, or their circumstances. And I’ll veto any bill that makes reproductive healthcare any less accessible for Wisconsinites than it is right now,” Gov. Evers concluded.