Wisconsin Supreme Court Takes Up Cases Challenging Abortion Law

The entrance to the Wisconsin Supreme Court chambers is seen inside the state Capitol in Madison, Wis., March 14, 2024. AP Photo/Todd Richmond, File

The Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to review two significant cases challenging the constitutionality of the state’s laws on abortion access.

Planned Parenthood, along with several women using pseudonyms, petitioned the court in February, asking it to strike down Wisconsin’s current abortion law. They argued that it violated the rights of patients and doctors under the state’s constitution.

The petitioners also seek the court’s permission to keep their identities confidential.

Three district attorneys—Joel Urmanski, Ismael R. Ozanne, and John T. Chisholm—are named as respondents, representing all 71 of the state’s district attorneys in this case.

“In granting this case, this court is doing what many other state courts have done, both before and after Dobbs v. Jackson—considering a state constitutional challenge to an abortion-related statute,” Justice Jill Karofsky wrote. “Deciding important state constitutional questions is not unusual—it’s this court’s job.”

The second case taken up for review is a challenge to the ban by Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat. On Tuesday, the justices agreed to review his case as well, letting it bypass the Wisconsin Court of Appeals on an expedited basis.

Pro-life groups, including Wisconsin Right to Life, Wisconsin Family Action, and Pro-Life Wisconsin, also tried to get involved in the case in April. While the court did not allow them to become official parties, under a third order issued on Tuesday it will let them submit supporting arguments in an amicus brief. Conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn, who dissented on the other two orders, concurred with this decision.

Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion law was triggered when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade two years ago, ending abortion access as a right nationwide. That ruling returned the decision-making power for abortion laws to the states and prompted a flurry of state-level legislation to either restrict or preserve abortion access.

The statute states that anyone “other than the mother, who intentionally destroys the life of an unborn child is guilty” of a felony.

Mr. Kaul filed his lawsuit in the days that followed the decision in 2022 against the district attorneys of the counties where Wisconsin’s three Planned Parenthoods were located. A ruling in that case was handed down last year by a Dane County judge, who found that the law doesn’t apply to consensual abortions.

Sheboygan County District Attorney Joel Urmanski appealed the decision, asking the state Supreme Court for permission to bypass the appellate process.

The court will establish a schedule for further arguments and a hearing date. Oral arguments have not yet been scheduled for either case.