MADISON, Wis. — Today, on the 51st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, Vice President Kamala Harris is commemorating the landmark date with Wisconsinites at a Waukesha kick off to her nationwide Reproductive Freedoms Tour, a Biden-Harris initiative to fight back against attacks on abortion access. Meanwhile, GOP state legislators will simultaneously hold action today on a bill that would put politicians in charge of making reproductive healthcare decisions for Wisconsinites.
For nearly 50 years, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade protected our right to make our own decisions about abortion, until the MAGA-packed court in 2022 overturned the federal protections of Roe and sent several states back decades on reproductive rights.
“In a post-Roe world, and in the face of ongoing attempts from Republican lawmakers to restrict abortion access in Wisconsin, we are appreciative of Vice President Harris standing up for abortion access and kicking off her Reproductive Freedom Tour here in the Badger State, especially on this landmark anniversary,” said Lucy Ripp, communications director at A Better Wisconsin Together.
Right now, GOP officials at the state level are not only trying to pass laws that put themselves in charge of when and how Wisconsinites can access abortion, but Republican state legislators are trying to keep their unconstitutional and heavily gerrymandered legislative maps in place so they can continue dodging accountability for their attacks on our reproductive freedom.
At the federal level, Republican politicians are pushing for a federal abortion ban and right-wing public officials are on a crusade to block access to Mifepristone, a safe and FDA approved abortion medication, which a lack of access to would put millions of pregnant people in danger and undermine doctors’ ability to provide essential care to patients – even in places where abortion is legal.
“These attacks are part of a larger agenda of extremists pushing to limit access to essential reproductive care, not just in Wisconsin, but nationwide,” said Ripp. “Now more than ever, we are grateful to have leaders like Vice President Harris in office, who are committed to protecting abortion access and who stand with the majority of Wisconsinites in believing that politicians have no business mandating decisions that ought to be made between patient and doctor.”
