On this day 174 years ago - March 31, 1849 - Wisconsin’s criminal abortion ban became law. Nearly two centuries later, Wisconsinites are still fighting to have it repealed.
All of us in Wisconsin - across gender, race, and zip code - deserve to be authentically ourselves and know that we belong.
According to recent news reports, voters across Wisconsin have been receiving transphobic text messages from American Principles Project PAC, an extreme anti-LGTBQ+ organization that supports Dan Kelly. The texts contain phrases and videos that weaponize hateful anti-trans rhetoric - but this isn’t the first time Kelly has been tied to dangerous anti-LGBTQ+ values.
As we join together in mourning another senseless mass shooting, GOP politicians are once again attempting to distract and divide our communities, by spreading hate and hoping to divert from the real issue at hand: right wing politicians’ refusal to put people first and stand up to the gun lobby.
No matter our zip code, everyone in Wisconsin deserves to feel safe - and it starts with investments in our communities that address public safety at the source.
Just hours after a public forum in which Dan Kelly dodged questions about his values and declined to give his true thoughts on Wisconsin’s 1849 criminal abortion ban, Kelly shared the stage with Matthew Trewhella - a rightwing extremist who has advocated for the execution of abortion providers.
At a March 21 public debate, Dan Kelly doubled down on his extremist views and strong ties to corruption. Specifically, Kelly refused to denounce Wisconsin’s archaic, unpopular 1849 criminal abortion ban, and evaded taking responsibility for his long history of refusing to recuse himself as a judge in cases where a conflict of interest clearly existed.
This morning, Gov. Tony Evers and Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez - alongside Democratic state legislators Kelda Roys and Lisa Subeck - reintroduced legislation that would restore abortion rights in Wisconsin by repealing the state’s 1849 criminal abortion ban.
Across race, place, and gender, every kid in Wisconsin deserves to be authentically themselves and know that they belong - no matter how they identify. However, legislative Republicans in Wisconsin are endangering the mental health and well-being of LGBTQ+ youth by allowing harmful conversion “therapy” to take place across the state.
In a transparent political ploy, legislative Republicans today circulated LRB 2151 - a disingenuous abortion bill that would keep politicians in charge of Wisconsinites’ reproductive healthcare decisions, keep a criminal abortion ban in place, and would keep in place felony charges the ban threatens against doctors and nurses who provide abortion care.