Abortion rights advocates prepare for Trump’s second presidency | The Wisconsin Independent
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Protesters make their way to the Wisconsin Capitol Rotunda during a march supporting overturning Wisconsin’s near total ban on abortion on Jan. 22, 2023, in Madison, Wisconsin. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)

The people and organizations fighting to protect the right to reproductive health care are rushing to prepare for the second presidency of Donald Trump, a Republican-led U.S. Congress, and a conservative supermajority on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Whether that preparation comes in the form of community organizing or lawsuits challenging anti-abortion policies, organizations and advocates told the Wisconsin Independent that they were ready to face whatever comes next.

Kristin Lyerly is an obstetrician and gynecologist in Wisconsin. She recently ran as a Democrat in Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District but lost the race in November to Republican Tony Wied.

In an interview with the Wisconsin Independent, Lyerly said her plan is to continue to be a trusted voice for her patients and to work toward flipping the state to Democratic control in two years.

Elections for the Wisconsin governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, and treasurer will take place in November 2026, along with the entire state House and 17 seats in the state Senate. 

“We’re doing the organizing. We’re talking to the people in rural areas. We’re talking to folks that we traditionally have not spent time investing in and having a plan for how we can succeed, not just politically, but as a community,” Lyerly said.

Lyerly said she’ll be going to community centers with Democratic candidates and holding what she calls “listening sessions,” adding that there are also plans to visit “small rural communities where people feel very isolated,” specifically Black, Hmong, and Latino communities.

She added that Democrats in the state are organizing ways to get information to potential voters about the state’s voter ID laws so that they have what they need when they go to vote. 

On Jan. 15, the Republican-controlled Wisconsin State Assembly passed a measure that could enshrine voter ID requirements in the state constitution. The vote passed 54 to 45. Democrats who opposed the measure said it discriminates against voters of color as well as those living in rural areas. Wisconsin voters will vote on the proposal on April 1.

“We really need to empower people who traditionally don’t feel like they have the power to speak out,” Lyerly said. 

Following the June 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, an 1849 Wisconsin law interpreted as a ban on abortion went back into effect. Planned Parenthood stopped providing abortion care for over a year. In December 2023, Dane County Circuit Judge Diane Schlipper ruled the pre-Civil War law applies to feticide, not to consensual abortion. 

Abortion remains legal in Wisconsin until 21 weeks and six days of pregnancy while the state Supreme Court deliberates an appeal of Schlipper’s ruling.

The court, which gained a liberal 4-3 majority with the election of Justice Janet Protasiewicz in 2023, heard oral arguments in the case in November, and a ruling is likely to come in the next few months.

Dr. Jenny Higgins, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology and the director of the Collaborative for Reproductive Equity at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told the Wisconsin Independent she was concerned that the Trump administration could create restrictions to Title X.

Title X is a federal program that provides funding for family planning-related services, such as contraception, pregnancy testing and counseling, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment.

The first Trump administration prohibited federal funding to Title X grantee clinics and other organizations that provide information about abortion services. The rules decimated the Title X program’s reach in Wisconsin. A 2022 report by the collaborative at the University of Wisconsin found that the restrictions reduced the number of patients served by such clinics by 2.4 million between 2018 and 2020.

“Based on prior evidence, I’m concerned that potential restrictions to Title X under the next administration are likely to even further reduce the number of Wisconsinites who can obtain essential family planning services,” Higgins said in an email. “Such limits on access to reproductive healthcare will undermine Wisconsinites’ health and well-being in both the short term and long term.”

The collaborative plans to bolster research projects that will allow the organization to measure the impact of barriers to reproductive health care on Wisconsinites, Higgins said.

Nancy Northup, the president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement sent to the Wisconsin Independent that the organization was “ready for this next fight” in Trump’s second term.

“We will vigorously oppose any and all attempts to roll back progress. We will scrutinize every action of the White House and federal agencies, amass the factual and legal record to counter agency actions, and work to stop harmful policies from going into effect,” Northup said. “If they do, we will take them to court. We will vehemently fight any effort to pass a national abortion ban, to stop the provision of medication abortion by mail, to block women from crossing state lines to get care, to dismantle UN [United Nations] protections for reproductive rights and progress made at the national level in countries around the world, and more.”

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