After Court Victory, Rep. Subeck Pushes to Enshrine Abortion Rights in Wisconsin Law

MADISON – Today, the Wisconsin Supreme Court announced their decision in Kaul vs. Urmanski, a 2023 case challenging the interpretation and application of an 1849 law as a criminal abortion ban that could be enforced against doctors who provide abortion care to their patients. 

In 2022, abortion services ceased for more than a year in Wisconsin following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health which repealed the constitutional right to abortion previously established by the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision. Services resumed only after a lower court ruled that the 1849 law could not be used to prosecute abortion providers, a decision affirmed by today’s Wisconsin Supreme Court’s ruling.

Representative Lisa Subeck (D-Madison) released the following statement:

“Today, Wisconsinites are celebrating a hard-won victory in the ongoing struggle for reproductive freedom. This ruling reaffirms what we have long known: politicians and outdated laws have no place in the deeply personal decisions made between patients and their doctors.

For over a year, doctors were threatened and patients left in limbo—all because we lost the fundamental constitutional right to abortion care that had been protected for nearly half a century. That fear, confusion, and harm must never be repeated.

Now that the courts have made it clear that Wisconsin does not have a total abortion ban, we must go further. It’s time to protect reproductive rights not just in practice, but in law. We must pass the Abortion Rights Restoration Act to guarantee the right to abortion and eliminate the medically unjustified, politically motivated restrictions that still exist in our state statutes. The people of Wisconsin deserve nothing less than full access to safe and legal reproductive health care without unnecessary barriers and free from judgement.”

Rep. Subeck represents the 79th Assembly District and serves as Chair of the Assembly Democratic Caucus