MILWAUKEE — The Supreme Court on Friday followed through on the draft opinion that was leaked to the media last month by striking down Roe v. Wade, the nearly 50-year-old ruling that established the constitutional right to abortion.

This means states will be allowed to ban abortions, as is the case in Wisconsin where a law has been on the books since 1849 but has not been enforced since 1973.

In 2020, 6,430 abortions were done in Wisconsin, according to a report from Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Per the report, 6,336 Wisconsin residents had abortions. In 2020 in Wisconsin, the estimated ratio of induced abortion to live births is 10:100. Nationally, that same ratio in 2019 was 19.5:100.

In Wisconsin in 2020, the Wisconsin resident abortion rate was 5.8 abortions per 1,000 women between ages 15 to 44. Nationally, the same ratio in 2019 was 11.4 abortions per 1,000 women between ages 15 to 44, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Wisconsin women between 20- and 24-years-old accounted for 30% of Wisconsin residents who received abortions in 2020. Women 35-years-old and older accounted for 13%, and 18- to 19-year-olds accounted for 7% of abortions. Girls between 15- to 17-years-old accounted for 3%.

In 2020, there were 185 abortions for Wisconsin residents younger than the age of 18. Written consent, which is typically provided by a child’s parent, was provided in 165 of the procedures. One patient was an emancipated minor. A court waived the consent requirement in 19 cases.

Adult consent is required for minors to have an abortion unless the pregnancy is a result of sexual assault, in cases of medical emergencies or if pregnancy is the result of sex with a caregiver. Wisconsin DHS said none of these instances were reported to them in 2020.

In Milwaukee, women’s opinions on the debate surrounding abortion were widespread on Tuesday afternoon.

Some said it’s not about “right” or “wrong.”

“I can’t say I am pro-choice or pro-life because I fall in there. There are different [ways] how a woman got into that situation [to want an abortion],” Amanda Schmidt, from Milwaukee, said.

Schmidt said there are many factors to consider when looking at abortions on a case-by-case basis.

“Is the child going to have a good upbringing? Is it going to become a good person in our society because of the environment they are raised in? There is a spectrum to answer your question,” she said.

Eighty-four percent of abortions were performed on Wisconsin women who had never been married; 12% by married women; 3% by divorced women; less than 1% by widowed women.

Fifty-four percent of abortions reported for Wisconsin women were obtained by white women; 34% by Black women; 1% by American Indian women. Hispanic women of any race accounted for 12% of abortions, and non-Hispanic women accounted for 87% of abortions.

Other Wisconsin women said abortion should never have been a federal issue in the first place.

Tracy Honeck, who hails from Racine, said she read the leaked draft this morning.

“It is a state’s rights issue — shouldn’t be a federal law. It should be a state’s rights issue, that is how our country is designed to be. It doesn’t mean no one would be able to get an abortion ever again. It just means every state is going to decide for themselves what they are gonna do,” Honeck said.

In 2020, 61% of Wisconsin residents who had an abortion underwent surgical abortions. Thirty-nine percent were chemically induced while less than 1% underwent a surgical abortion under a failed or incomplete chemical abortion.

Fifty-nine percent of reported abortions among Wisconsin residents were done in the first eight weeks of gestation. 

Read the full report, released May 2022, from Wisconsin DHS below.