Wisconsin Republicans introduced a bill on Friday calling for a statewide referendum to decide on a 14-week abortion ban.
Current Wisconsin law bars abortions after 20 weeks, and the new bill would shrink that window by six weeks, making expectations if there’s a serious risk of death of the pregnant woman or a threat of irreversible injuries.
The bill, introduced in the Republican-led Wisconsin Assembly, would ask voters to approve the policy through a ballot measure during April’s election. Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI) said he would veto the bill if passed, before it’s put on the ballot.
Last year, a Dane County Circuit judge ruled a 19th-century Wisconsin law does not prohibit abortions, declaring the state’s 1849 law bans feticide but not “consensual medical abortions.” A Republican district attorney appealed the ruling from Dane County Circuit in December.
State Rep. Amanda Nedweski, the lead sponsor of the plan, said an appeal of the decision would likely fail in the newly liberal state Supreme Court. Justice Janet Protasiewicz flipped the court last summer, making the state’s highest court liberal for the first time in 15 years with a 4-3 majority.
“Abortion up until birth is the extreme, and allowing abortion well into the second trimester is rare throughout the U.S. and the rest of the civilized world. Wisconsin’s current law is an outlier,” Nedweski said, per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Empowering the people of Wisconsin to affect abortion law directly in a referendum can save many lives by moving the gestational age from 20 to 14 weeks.”
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Reproductive rights groups quickly condemned Wisconsin Republicans for trying to reduce the legal window for abortions.
“This is another attempt by legislative Republicans to strip away rights and freedoms from Wisconsinites and ban abortion care in our state,” Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin Director of Communications Analiese Eicher said in a statement.
