A Wisconsin Supreme Court justice appeared to oppose a request to reinstate a 175-year-old abortion ban, telling the conservative prosecutor’s attorney that “this is the world gone mad”.

Warning: This article mentions pregnancy complications, sexual assault and terminations.

Sheboygan County Republican district attorney Joel Urmanski asked for the high court to overturn a Dane County judge ruling last year which invalidated the 1849 abortion ban. A ruling is yet to be made, but pro-choice advocates are expected to win the case as liberal justices control the court in the state.

On Monday (11 November), Liberal Justice Jill Karofsky noted that the abortion ban would provide no exceptions in the cases of rape or incest, and could contribute to doctors withholding medical care for fear of prosecution. 

Karofsky said she “can’t think of anyone else other than pregnant people who are denied medical care under the law”.

She told Urmanski’s attorney, Matthew Thome: “I fear that what you are asking this Court to do is to sign the death warrants of women and children and pregnant people in the state.

“Because under your interpretation, they could all be denied life-saving medical care while the medical professionals who are charged with taking care of them are forced to sit idly by.

“This is the world gone mad,” she remarked. “I don’t understand how that is not the crime here.”

Thome said that the 1849 law should be interpreted to “prohibit consensual abortions from conception until birth, subject to an exception when it is necessary to save the life of the mother”.

The abortion ban in question was in place until 1973 when it was nullified after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark law Roe v. Wade gave women and those with a uterus the right to an abortion in the US.

Legislators never repealed the 1849 ban, and the overturning of Roe v. Wade reactivated it when the ban immediately went into effect. The 1849 statute states that “ending the life of an unborn child” is a felony, except in the case of saving the life of the pregnant person. 

In July 2023, a Dane County judge ruled that the 1849 ban can only be applied to feticide and not “consensual” abortion. In September of that year, abortion care providers were able to resume services.

For abortion support in the US, visit Planned Parenthood here. For abortion support in the UK and Northern Ireland, visit the NHS website here. For abortion support in Ireland, visit HSE here.

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