Wisconsin state prosecutors filed a lawsuit Monday in the state Supreme Court seeking to reinstate a 175-year-old abortion ban.
Her argument comes more than two years after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, a decision that effectively ended recognition of the constitutional right to abortion and mandated that states have a right to abortion. Authorized to permit, restrict, or completely prohibit.
In December, Sheboygan County District Attorney Joel Urmansky appealed a Dane County judge's ruling invalidating a 175-year-old abortion ban, saying there was no state ban on abortion.
A ruling is expected to take several weeks, but with liberal justices controlling the court, pro-abortion advocates are almost certain to prevail.
Wisconsin Republican prosecutors plan to appeal state abortion case
Janet Protasiewicz, 60, will be sworn in as a state Supreme Court justice on August 1, 2023 in the Rotunda of the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin. (Sarah Status of The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The Associated Press reported that one of the judges, Janet Protasiewicz, spoke out in support of abortion rights during the election campaign.
Monday's hearing lasted about two hours, but no decision was made.
Another liberal judge, Rebecca Durrett, told Matthew Thome, a lawyer representing Mr. Urmansky, that Prohibition was passed in 1849 by white men who had all the power.
Liberal Justice Jill Karofsky told Thome that reimposing the ban could prevent doctors from providing medical care because the 1849 law does not include exceptions for rape or incest. pointed out.
Wisconsin district attorney appeals court decision allowing abortions to resume in state
Ultrasound image of a baby at 19 weeks pregnant. (Fox News)
Thome said in court Monday that he did not dispute the impact of reinstating the abortion ban. Rather, he argued that the legal theory that new laws repeal old laws is unstable.
He also argued that the ban and new regulations on abortion could overlap.
Thome told the judge that a ruling that the 1985 law effectively repealed the ban would be “anti-democratic.”
“This is a law that Congress hasn't repealed, but you're saying, no, it actually has repealed it,” he said.
Judge Durrett told Thome that ignoring laws passed over the past 40 years, dating back to 1849, is undemocratic.
Abortion has been banned in the state since 1849, and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right to abortion nationwide in 1973 in the landmark Roe v. Wade case. However, on June 24, 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Dobbs and overturned Roe v. Wade, states regained the power to determine their own abortion laws.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin plans to resume abortion services in Sheboygan by year's end
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul speaks at a campaign stop in Milwaukee on October 27, 2022.
Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit challenging the law in 2022. He argued that a 1985 Wisconsin law that allows abortions before a baby can survive outside the womb supersedes the ban.
Urmansky argues that the ban can coexist with the 1985 law because it was never repealed and did not legalize abortion at any point.
He also argues that other modern abortion regulations do not legalize abortion.
Dane County Circuit Court Judge Diane Schripper ruled last year that the ban makes it illegal to kill a fetus without the mother's consent, but not consensual abortion.
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The ruling allowed Planned Parenthood to resume providing abortions in Wisconsin after halting the procedure when Roe was overturned.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
