Current:Home > ScamsRepublican prosecutor will appeal judge’s ruling invalidating Wisconsin’s 174-year-old abortion ban-InfoLens
Republican prosecutor will appeal judge’s ruling invalidating Wisconsin’s 174-year-old abortion ban
View Date:2024-12-23 15:03:09
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Republican prosecutor said Tuesday that he plans to appeal a court ruling that Wisconsin law permits consensual medical abortions, the first step toward a potential showdown in the state Supreme Court over abortion rights.
Sheboygan County District Attorney Joel Urmanski issued a statement through his attorneys saying that he disagrees with Dane County Circuit Judge Diane Schlipper’s July finding and state law clearly bans abortions, including consensual medical abortions.
The case appears destined to end up at the state Supreme Court.
Liberal justices currently hold a 4-3 majority on the court, making it unlikely that conservatives would prevail at that level. Urmanski could string out the process beyond the 2025 spring elections, however, in the hopes that liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley loses re-election and conservatives regain control of the court.
In question is an 1849 Wisconsin law that conservatives have interpreted as banning abortion. The U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision legalizing abortion, reactivated the law. Abortion providers subsequently ceased operations in the state out of fear of violating the ban.
Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit days after the Supreme Court decision, challenging the ban’s validity. He argued the statutes were too old to enforce and a 1985 law permitting abortions before fetuses can survive outside the womb trumps the ban. Three doctors later joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs, saying they fear being prosecuted for performing abortions.
Urmanski is defending the ban in court. The city of Sheboygan is home to one of Planned Parenthood’s three Wisconsin clinics that provide abortions. The others are in Madison and Milwaukee.
Schlipper ruled this past July that the abortion ban prohibits someone from attacking a woman in an attempt to kill her unborn child but doesn’t apply to consensual medical abortions. Her finding didn’t formally end the lawsuit but Planned Parenthood was confident enough in the ruling to resume abortion procedures at their Madison and Milwaukee clinics in September.
Urmanski later filed a motion asking Schlipper to reconsider her ruling. She refused in a 14-page opinion issued Tuesday, writing that Urmanski failed to show how she misapplied state law or made any other mistake and declared that the plaintiffs had won the suit.
She also declined the doctors’ request to issue an injunction prohibiting prosecutors from charging abortion providers, saying she’s confidant prosecutors will follow her ruling.
Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne and Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, both Democrats, have said they would abide by Schlipper’s ruling. Urmanski has said he would abide by it as well. He reiterated in his statement Tuesday that he’s obligated to follow the ruling unless it’s stayed on appeal.
Kaul said during a news conference Wednesday morning before Urmanski’s announcement that he fully expected an appeal.
“This decision can be appealed. I expect that it likely will be,” Kaul said. “And so other courts will weigh in on this. But for now, this is a major win for reproductive freedom in Wisconsin, and we are prepared to defend that victory and reproductive freedom as we move forward.”
___
Associated Press writer Scott Bauer contributed to this report.
veryGood! (6888)
Related
- New Yorkers vent their feelings over the election and the Knicks via subway tunnel sticky notes
- Memo to Joe Manchin, Congress: Stop clutching your pearls as college athletes make money
- No place is safe in Gaza after Israel targets areas where civilians seek refuge, Palestinians say
- Man punched Sikh teen in turban on New York City bus in suspected hate crime, authorities say
- Kentucky woman seeking abortion files lawsuit over state bans
- Supreme Court orders makers of gun parts to comply with federal ghost gun rules
- DC Young Fly’s Sister Dies 4 Months After His Partner Jacky Oh
- A Berlin synagogue is attacked with firebombs while antisemitic incidents rise in Germany
- Miami Marlins hiring Los Angeles Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough as manager
- A security problem has taken down computer systems for almost all Kansas courts
Ranking
- BITFII Introduce
- U.S. gets a C+ in retirement, on par with Kazakhstan and lagging other wealthy nations
- Scholastic book fairs, a staple at U.S. schools, accused of excluding diverse books
- Anonymous bettor reportedly wins nearly $200,000 after massive NFL parlay
- What to know about Mississippi Valley State football player Ryan Quinney, who died Friday
- Kansas agency investigated girl’s family 5 times before she was killed, a report shows
- These House Republicans voted against Jim Jordan's speaker bid in the first round
- South Carolina teen elected first Black homecoming queen in school's 155 years of existence
Recommendation
-
Chrysler recalls over 200k Jeep, Dodge vehicles over antilock-brake system: See affected models
-
Man who, in his teens, shot and killed Albuquerque mail carrier sentenced to 22 years
-
Nikki Haley nabs fundraiser from GOP donor who previously supported DeSantis: Sources
-
What Google’s antitrust trial means for the way you search and more
-
Trump’s economic agenda for his second term is clouding the outlook for mortgage rates
-
Court documents detail moments before 6-year-old Muslim boy was fatally stabbed: 'Let’s pray for peace'
-
Missouri ex-officer who killed Black man loses appeal of his conviction, judge orders him arrested
-
Lionel Messi scores 2 in Argentina’s World Cup qualifying win over Peru; Brazil’s Neymar injured