April 24, 2024

PRO-LIFE GROUPS OPPOSE NEW EFFORT FROM PLANNED PARENTHOOD TO MAKE ABORTION A "CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT" IN WISCONSIN

Today, Wisconsin Right to Life, Wisconsin Family Action, and Pro-Life Wisconsin joined together to block Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin’s pursuit to find a right to abortion in the Wisconsin Constitution. They are being represented by The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) and the Thomas More Society.

There is no right to abortion in the Wisconsin Constitution, and it is the role of Wisconsin's elected legislature to create policy on abortion.

All three pro-life organizations have been working for years to offer alternatives to abortion and help Wisconsin women make life-affirming decisions.

In response, Heather Weininger, Executive Director of Wisconsin Right to Life stated, "We celebrate the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the opportunity to address the question of life at a state level through our elected state legislature. While we as pro-life advocates are fighting for protections for preborn children and their mothers, radical pro-abortion providers are trying to bypass the legislative process and weaponize the court system to enshrine abortion access on demand. They are putting the lives of Wisconsin’s most vulnerable at risk.”

Christine File, President of Wisconsin Family Action stated, “Planned Parenthood invites the Wisconsin Supreme Court to flout Dobbs, usurp the state legislature’s role to create law, and 'find' a novel constitutional right to abortion. Wisconsin’s history and law has protected women and pre-born babies since before statehood. The purpose of government is to secure rights, including the foundational human right to life. Scientifically, it is undeniable that there are two lives at stake here: the woman’s and the pre-born baby’s. The Supreme Court is not the proper venue to create health and safety law nor the proper mechanism to add a constitutional amendment. The legislature is the proper body to weigh the policy considerations and create law, not the Court.”

Dan Miller, State Director at Pro-Life Wisconsin stated, “Finding a right to abortion in our state constitution, where there clearly is none, would be the most extreme form of legislating from the bench. Tens of thousands of lives are at stake. All our common-sense pro-life laws, including an ultrasound requirement and 24-hour waiting period, that protect women and their preborn children would likely fall. The U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled in Dobbs that there is no federal constitutional right to abortion. Nothing in Wisconsin’s constitution or the history of our state would remotely suggest such a right. We implore the Wisconsin Supreme Court to reject Planned Parenthood’s radical and self-serving plans.”

***** 

  
Media Contacts:

Pro-Life Wisconsin
Dan Miller, Pro-Life Wisconsin, State Director
[email protected]; (262) 796-1111 Ext. 111

Wisconsin Family Action
Christine File, Wisconsin Family Action, President
[email protected]; (608) 268-5074

Wisconsin Right to Life
Heather Weininger, Wisconsin Right to Life, Executive Director
[email protected]; (414) 778-5780