MADISON, Wis. — Today marks 176 years since the archaic 1849 statute that Brad Schimel supports using to ban abortion was signed into Wisconsin law.
Schimel has publicly endorsed using the statute, which was written before women even had the right to vote, to ban abortion with no exceptions for rape, incest, or the health of the mother. The law could also charge doctors and nurses with crimes for providing abortion care.
As the Wisconsin Supreme Court currently considers a case regarding the enforceability of the 1849 law as an abortion ban, A Better Wisconsin Together Communications Director Lucy Ripp says it’s important that Wisconsinites know where Schimel stands.
“A majority of Wisconsinites believe that we should be able to make our own reproductive healthcare decisions, and that politicians have no business in decisions that ought to be made between a patient and their doctor. But not Brad Schimel.
“From publicly supporting using the 1849 law as an abortion ban, to proudly saying he doesn’t believe Wisconsinites have a constitutional right to abortion, and his endorsement from some of the most radical anti-abortion groups in Wisconsin, Schimel has made it clear that if given the chance, he could rule to uphold the 1849 law as a criminal abortion ban and cause devastating harm to women and pregnant people across Wisconsin.
“Wisconsin has come a long way in the last 176 years. It’s time that Schimel join Wisconsinites in the present and stop putting his own partisan agenda over protecting our rights and freedoms.”
