Wisconsin Republicans introduce bill to ban abortion at 14 weeks

A group of Wisconsin state representatives, including Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, introduced a bill on Friday that would ban abortion at 14 weeks’ gestation.

Republicans are fast-tracking the bill through the Legislature because it requires approval from Wisconsin voters before it can go into effect. They want the 14-week ban to be placed on the April 2 primary ballot, where it would require the support of a majority of voters in that election to pass.

A public hearing on the 14-week abortion ban is scheduled to take place on Monday.

“Empowering the people of Wisconsin to affect abortion law directly in a referendum, rather than through the legislature, can save many lives by moving the gestational age from 20 to 14 weeks,” Republican state Rep. Amanda Nedweski, who authored the bill, said in a statement. 

Vos, who co-sponsored the bill, said in December that he wanted voters to determine whether abortion should be banned in Wisconsin.

“It’s probably the only way for us to put this issue to rest,” Vos said in an interview with the Associated Press. “It has the idea of saying we’re letting the people decide.”

Abortion had been banned altogether in Wisconsin for more than a year, after a law passed in 1849 went back into effect following the U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that affirmed the right to an abortion before fetal viability. The 1849 law made it a felony for “any person other than the mother” to “intentionally destroy the life of an unborn child.”

However, in December 2023, a Dane County judge ruled that the 1849 law did not ban consensual abortion but rather banned feticide. Abortion became legal again in Wisconsin through 20 weeks’ gestation. After that period, the procedure is only allowed in medical emergencies. 

Ultimately, it’s unlikely the 14-week ban proposed by Republicans will make it to a referendum.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has said he would veto the new bill, blocking the 14-week ban proposal from being put on the April ballot.

“If Republicans had their way, they’d ask Wisconsinites to strip themselves of some of the very reproductive freedoms that were only just recently restored,” Evers tweeted on Sunday. “I will not let Wisconsinites go back to the way the way things were a year ago, much less 50 years ago before #Roe. Period.”