MADISON, Wis. — Voters across the Badger State won't get a direct say on whether a 173-year-old law banning abortion should be repealed, at least not anytime soon.
A push by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to allow voters to change the law was swiftly shut down Tuesday by Republicans.
In June, GOP leaders previously rejected a special session to repeal Wisconsin's abortion ban from 1849.
This time, however, Gov. Evers took a different approach and called on lawmakers to take up a constitutional amendment that would allow Wisconsin voters to change state law by referendum, which ultimately was rejected by Republican leaders in a matter of seconds.
“We have put the opportunity for them [Republicans] to overturn the abortion ban in front of them many times, but today they even denied Wisconsin voters the opportunity to weigh in on this issue directly, and that is incredibly disappointing,” Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) said.
The changes proposed by Gov. Evers would let voters decide the fate of not just the 1849 abortion law, but other existing state laws as well.
With no discussion or debate on the proposal, abortion rights advocates took the conversation outside of the Capitol and rallied behind the governor, who faces reelection in November.
“They [lawmakers] haven't been in since March,” Gov. Evers told reporters. “Other people have been working. They could have [come] in. They could have [come] in for a day and at least had a discussion. They are telling the women of the state of Wisconsin [to] go jump in a lake.”
At the federal level, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson is on record suggesting that voters should be the ones who decide how the law from 1849 is changed, which is the process Gov. Evers hoped to begin Tuesday.
However, state Republicans dismissed the governor's request as a “political stunt.”
“Governor Evers would rather push his agenda to have abortion available until birth than talk about his failure to address rising crime and runaway inflation caused by his liberal DC allies,” Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said in a statement after the special session was initially called. “Hopefully, voters see through his desperate political stunt.”
An exclusive Spectrum News/Siena College poll found that 72% of likely voters in Wisconsin want a new abortion law. However, there is disagreement over how far the policy should go.
Though the governor's push to get an abortion referendum on the ballot was unsuccessful, the future of abortion law in Wisconsin still rests with voters based on who they elect in November.