(C) Wisconsin Watch

(C) Wisconsin Watch
This story was originally published by Wisconsin Watch and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .

Does Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion law allow abortion only for women who are in danger of dying? [1]

['Tom Kertscher', 'Wisconsin Watch', 'More Tom Kertscher', 'Fact Checker']

Date: 2023-03-23 18:40:10+00:00

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Wisconsin Watch, a nonprofit newsroom, is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Sign up for our newsletter for more stories straight to your inbox.

Yes.

The Wisconsin law prohibiting nearly all abortions states:

“Any person, other than the mother, who intentionally destroys the life of an unborn child is guilty of a Class H felony.”

The prohibition was signed by Gov. Nelson Dewey on March 31, 1849.

The law provides an exception for an abortion “necessary to save the life of the mother.” It applies to a child who has “quickened,” or whose movements are perceptible to the parent.

Wisconsin’s prohibition was made unenforceable by Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision establishing a national right to an abortion.

On June 24, 2022, the high court overturned Roe. Wisconsin abortion providers stopped offering abortions while a challenge to the 1849 law is pending.

On March 21, 2023, Gov. Tony Evers and fellow Democrats announced reintroduction of a bill to repeal the 1849 law — a measure Republicans refused to consider in 2022.

See a full discussion of this at Wisconsin Watch

This Fact Brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

Wisconsin State Legislature Wisconsin Legislature: 940.04

Wisconsin State Legislature A Brief History of Abortion Laws in Wisconsin

State of Wisconsin LRB-0692/1

Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

Close window X Republish this article This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Scroll down to copy and paste the code of our article into your CMS. The codes for images, graphics and other embeddable elements may not transfer exactly as they appear on our site. You are welcome to republish our articles for free using the following ground rules. Credit should be given, in this format: “By Dee J. Hall, Wisconsin Watch”

If published online, you must include the links and link to wisconsinwatch.org

If you share the story on social media, please mention @wisconsinwatch ( Twitter Facebook and Instagram

Don’t sell the story — it may not be marketed as an individual product.

Don’t sell ads against the story. But you can publish it with pre-sold ads.

Your website must include a prominent way to contact you.

Additional elements that are packaged with our story must be labeled.

Users can republish our photos, illustrations, graphics and multimedia elements ONLY with stories with which they originally appeared. You may not separate multimedia elements for standalone use.

If we send you a request to change or remove Wisconsin Watch content from your site, you must agree to do so immediately. You are welcome to republish our articles forusing the following ground rules. For questions regarding republishing rules please contact Andy Hall, executive director, at [email protected] Does Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion law allow abortion only for women who are in danger of dying? <h1>Does Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion law allow abortion only for women who are in danger of dying?</h1> by Tom Kertscher / Wisconsin Watch, Wisconsin Watch March 23, 2023 <h2>Yes. </h2> The Wisconsin law prohibiting nearly all abortions states: “Any person, other than the mother, who intentionally destroys the life of an unborn child is guilty of a Class H felony.” The prohibition was signed by Gov. Nelson Dewey on March 31, 1849. The law provides an exception for an abortion “necessary to save the life of the mother." It applies to a child who has "quickened," or whose movements are perceptible to the parent. Wisconsin’s prohibition was made unenforceable by Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision establishing a national right to an abortion. On June 24, 2022, the high court overturned Roe. Wisconsin abortion providers stopped offering abortions while a challenge to the 1849 law is pending. On March 21, 2023, Gov. Tony Evers and fellow Democrats announced reintroduction of a bill to repeal the 1849 law — a measure Republicans refused to consider in 2022. <a href="https://wisconsinwatch.org/2022/08/wisconsins-173-year-old-ban-allows-only-life-saving-therapeutic-abortions-no-one-knows-what-that-means/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">See a full discussion of this at Wisconsin Watch</a> This Fact Brief is responsive to conversations such as <a href="https://twitter.com/eddieprochoice1/status/1637386014757998593?s=46&t=L75BhVJTK5AZ0nYXd6Mi4w" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">this one</a>. Sources Wisconsin State Legislature <a href="https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/940/i/04" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Wisconsin Legislature: 940.04</a> Wisconsin State Legislature <a href="https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/misc/lrb/lrb_reports/history_of_abortion_laws_6_4.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">A Brief History of Abortion Laws in Wisconsin</a> State of Wisconsin <a href="https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/WIGOV/2023/03/21/file_attachments/2442920/23-0692_1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LRB-0692/1</a> This <a target="_blank" href="https://wisconsinwatch.org/2023/03/does-wisconsins-1849-abortion-law-allow-abortion-only-for-women-who-are-in-danger-of-dying/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://wisconsinwatch.org">Wisconsin Watch</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/wisconsinwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/cropped-WCIJ_IconOnly_FullColor_RGB-1.png?fit=150%2C150&quality=100&ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"><img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://wisconsinwatch.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=1277718&ga=UA-17896820-1" style="width:1px;height:1px;"> Copy to Clipboard

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://wisconsinwatch.org/2023/03/does-wisconsins-1849-abortion-law-allow-abortion-only-for-women-who-are-in-danger-of-dying/

Published and (C) by Wisconsin Watch
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-ND 4.0 Intl.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/wisconsinwatch/