MADISON, Wis. — A bill to allow a referendum that would ban abortion in Wisconsin after 14 weeks is making its through the channels in Madison. On Monday afternoon, it received a public hearing where lawmakers and citizens could voice their opinions on the bill.
State Representative Amanda Nedweski (R – Pleasant Prairie) wrote the bill and was one of the first to address the committee. Rep. Nedweski said she hopes Wisconsin can match the country’s opinion on abortion:
“The first trimester is seeming to be where the country is at. This is an opportunity to ask the people of Wisconsin if they agree with that.”
Two medical students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee testified to the committee undertaking the bill. One of them told the committee she saw patients who needed more than 14 weeks to see an OBH-YN in the first place.
“I’ve encountered numerous people where abortions beyond 14 weeks became necessary,” the student said. “But outside of this strict definition of medical emergencies.”
The medical student, who said she grew up in West Allis and hopes to be an OBG-YN, claimed the referendum would push medical practitioners out of Wisconsin because of the difficult position they would be put in.
Rep. Nedweski indicated she had a record of supporting women’s access to healthcare in the past, but the referendum was a cause of the current culture.
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“I’ve demonstrated my commitment to women’s health by supporting access to over-the-counter birth control,” Rep. Nedweski said. “But I also know we live in a culture that has witnessed a disintegration of the value of life since 1973.”
The Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, which held that women had a constitutional right to an abortion, was passed in 1973. It protected abortion access as a constitutional right until that ruling was overturned via the Supreme Court’s ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health in 2022.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court is expected to rule that women in Wisconsin have the right to have an abortion since the court flipped to a liberal majority in 2022 with the election of Justice Janet Protasiewicz.
The second of the two medical students testified that she would feel that her life would be worth less than an unborn fetus should the referendum pass.
“Representative Nedweski says we need to stop exploiting the lives of the unborn,” she said. “What about the lives of those forced to carry out a pregnancy they do not want?”
Governor Evers has repeatedly said he would veto any bill that would restrict access to abortion. After Dane County Circuit Court Judge Dianne Schlipper’s ruling that there is no ban on abortion in Wisconsin, certain Planned Parenthood locations have started offering abortions in Wisconsin.
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