Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates clash over abortion rights, impartiality

In an hour-long televised debate on March 12, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Susan Crawford accused Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Brad Schimel of prejudging cases, pandering to President Donald Trump, and supporting a statewide abortion ban. Schimel denied the claims and accused the current Supreme Court majority of pursuing a political agenda.

Crawford and Schimel are running for an open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The general election will be April 1, 2025.

Schimel, who has been endorsed by the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America Women Speak Out super PAC and state anti-abortion activists, said that the Supreme Court has become too politicized. “It’s critical in our constitutional republic that the political branches do the politics: the legislature makes the law, the executive enforces it,” he said. “The judiciary doesn’t get involved in the politics. The judiciary approaches cases objectively. I do that every day in my courtroom.” 

Crawford, who is backed in the race by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin, the pro-abortion rights organization EMILY’s List, and Reproductive Freedom for All, accused Schimel of hypocrisy: “He is paying good lip service to the principles of impartiality and open-mindedness. But throughout this campaign, he has taken issues on cases pending before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, including cases like one involving an 1849 abortion law that, if it were in effect, would criminalize pretty much all abortions in Wisconsin. He has openly said, when he’s in front of audiences of his political allies, that there is nothing wrong with that law and it should be enforced.” 

Schimel’s campaign site contains a warning that “If the left wins in April they will … eliminate school choice … overturn Right to Work, remove voter ID,” and make other judicial decisions apparently opposed to Schimel’s views.

His campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Schimel co-signed a Wisconsin Right to Life white paper in 2012 calling for the state’s 1849 abortion ban to be kept on the books in case the Supreme Court ever overturned previous abortion rights rulings. The outlet reported that he told supporters in 2024: “We just said, ‘No, just leave it. You never know. If the Supreme Court does reverse Roe v. Wade, well then we have a law on the books.”

The 1849 law is currently being challenged in Wisconsin courts, with plaintiffs arguing that it did not apply to consensual abortions and that it was effectively repealed by subsequent legislation. 

Asked by the debate moderator about the topic, Schimel said, “It was a validly passed law.” He appeared to close off the idea that the judiciary should rule for the plaintiffs, saying: “No judge or justice should be deciding this issue for the voters of Wisconsin. This issue belongs in their hands.” 

Wisconsin’s GOP-led Legislature has blocked efforts to hold a voter referendum on abortion rights.

Crawford said it was inappropriate to weigh in on a case currently pending before the court and noted her previous work for Planned Parenthood as an attorney and her trust in women to make their own reproductive decisions. “I’m not in a position to weigh in at this point,” she said. “It would be prejudicial to the parties in that case for me to do so.”

Crawford also criticized millions in spending on the Supreme Court race by outside groups, including one distributing flyers saying, “Conservative Brad Schimel will support President Trump’s agenda!” 

“I have no control over whatever any outside group does,” Schimel said. “In the courtroom, my personal views are irrelevant, and President Trump’s personal views are irrelevant as well.”

In February, the Journal Sentinel reported that Schimel said during a Feb. 11 campaign appearance in Jefferson that he hoped conservative outside groups would spend money to help elect him: “I’m hoping that very soon we’re going to start seeing friends like Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, Fair Courts America, other groups like that — that very soon they’re going to get on the airwaves and help take some pressure off.”