The Capitol Report, produced by WisPolitics.com — a nonpartisan, Madison-based news service that specializes in coverage of government and politics — provides a weekly analysis of issues being debated in Wisconsin state government. It is underwritten by the WNA and produced exclusively for its members. WisPolitics.com President Jeff Mayers is a former editor and reporter for the Associated Press and a former political writer for the Wisconsin State Journal.
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While top legislative Republicans work on the next two-year spending plan, others are working on ideas for softening the GOP stance on abortion.
The abortion issue helped Gov. Tony Evers win reelection in November and Milwaukee Judge Janet Protasiewicz roll to victory in April. And GOP forces are worried it will help President Biden and U.S. Sen.
Tammy Baldwin to reelection victories next year by reducing margins in Milwaukee’s GOP-leaning suburbs and hyping the vote in deep-blue Dane County.
One tactic is to clarify the Republican anti-abortion stance. To that end, some Republicans have introduced a package of bills to clarify miscarriage treatment and other procedures are not outlawed by
Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban.
Lawmakers introduced the package in late May as Republicans have faced criticism over their failure to soften their position on abortion. The current ban almost entirely criminalizes terminating pregnancy, except to save the life of the mother.
The bills come after Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, in March said a bill to add exceptions to the state’s 1849 abortion ban wouldn’t make it to the Senate floor. The measure, supported by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, also drew criticism from anti-abortion groups.
Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin President Tanya Atkinson told WisPolitics the package is the latest GOP attempt to “permanently enshrine Wisconsin’s criminal abortion ban into law.”
“These bills are not a reflection of what the people of Wisconsin want and deserve,” she added. “It is past time that people in positions of power reflect the values of Wisconsinites and act in ways that protect and promote the health, safety and bodily autonomy of all people.”
One bill would specify a procedure to prevent a pregnant woman from dying and that isn’t intended to kill an unborn child is not an abortion. That includes inducing a pregnancy early, cesarean sections
and removal of a miscarriage or ectopic, anembryonic, or molar pregnancy.
Lawmakers in the co-sponsorship memo argue state law already protects the mother and child during pregnancy, but “pro-abortion groups have sowed doubt regarding whether current laws offer adequate protection to medical professionals who must perform a life-saving intervention on a pregnant woman.”
Those who oppose the state’s abortion ban say it is too broad and has forced health care workers to make difficult decisions and even withhold miscarriage treatment and other procedures.
Other bills would allow Wisconsinites to claim human embryos as dependents, and provide $1 million to pregnancy resource centers and $5 million for a new Adoption Financial Assistance Grant Program.
The package also increases to $1,000 from $700 the exemption amount taxpayers can claim per child and also allows them to claim any unborn child with a detectable heartbeat.
The bill language uses the term “fetal heartbeat,” but Johns Hopkins Medicine instructions on detecting heartbeats note the heart begins beating as early as the fifth week after the last menstrual period, before the fetal stage begins at about 8 weeks.
Lead author Sen. Romaine Quinn, R-Cameron, in a joint statement with Assembly colleagues said he will “always champion the sanctity of life that begins with the miracle of pregnancy.”
“We have put together a series of bills that build upon each other to provide protection and assistance to pregnant women and their children at all stages of life,” he said.
Assembly Minority Leader Rep. Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, told WisPolitics: “Wisconsinites want their rights back.”
“The legislature should be focused on restoring access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare,” she added.
Pro-Life Wisconsin, Wisconsin Family Action and the Wisconsin Catholic Conference all voiced support for the package of bills. Pro-Life Wisconsin Legislative Director Matt Sande in a statement said the
bills will “maintain and strengthen” the current abortion ban and “provide the necessary resources for both moms and babies to survive and thrive in a post-Roe Wisconsin.”
Evers is fighting the state’s ban via a case that could end up in the state Supreme Court after Protasiewicz joins the court and flips the ideological balance. The Dem governor has said he won’t sign
legislation that leaves Wisconsinites with fewer rights than they had before Roe v. Wade was overturned.
The bill to fund pregnancy resource centers would require the Department of Health Services to provide $1 million to Choose Life Wisconsin to allocate grants.
Pregnancy resource centers offer services such as “crisis pregnancy counseling, unwed mother support, abstinence programs, care of mothers and babies, safe haven housing, and post-abortion healing,” according to the co-sponsorship memo.
Under the measure, Choose Life Wisconsin would have to provide a report to DHS each year detailing grant recipients, which DHS would then send to the Legislature.
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