Wisconsin Supreme Court strikes down state’s anachronistic abortion law

The most important election of the year has already paid a major dividend:

Women in Wisconsin will continue to have access to abortion services under a new ruling from the state’s highest court that invalidates a 176-year-old state law that had banned abortions in nearly every situation.

In a 4-3 ruling July 2, the liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed a lower court’s previous decision that overturned the 19th Century law.

The decision ends three years of tumult over the issue following the 2022 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade, which had provided women nationwide with a constitutional right to abortion.

Writing for the court’s liberal majority, Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Dallet said the Wisconsin state Legislature had effectively repealed the 1849 law when it enacted additional laws regulating access to abortion.

“… this case is about giving effect to 50 years’ worth of laws passed by the legislature about virtually every aspect of abortion including where, when, and how health-care providers may lawfully perform abortions,” Dallet wrote. “The legislature, as the people’s representatives, remains free to change the laws with respect to abortion in the future.”

In a separate concurring opinion, Chief Justice Jill Karofsky cited stories of women who died while trying to end unwanted pregnancies without safe medical care, including her own great-grandmother in 1929.

“Like so many others, she died because society did not recognize her as someone with the ‘dignity and authority to make these choices,'” she wrote, quoting the U.S. Supreme Court’s liberal minority in its dissent to the 2022 ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.

Ruling here, and be glad Elon Musk is not nearly as popular as he thinks he is.