Women will continue to have access to abortion services in Wisconsin as the liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court has struck down an abortion ban in the state from 1849.
“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,” the ruling states.
The ban state lawmakers adopted in 1849 made it a felony when anyone other than the mother “intentionally destroys the life of an unborn child.”
The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 legalizing abortion nationwide nullified the ban. A 2022 Supreme Court decision overturned Roe.
