Particle.news
Download on the App Store
24 ARTICLES
·
5d ago

Wisconsin Supreme Court Strikes Down 1849 Near-Total Abortion Ban

The 4-3 ruling rested on the view that detailed abortion statutes enacted since 1985 implicitly repealed the centuries-old law.

Image
People hold signs at the Capitol rotunda in Madison, Wis., on Jan. 22, 2023.
Abortion rights supporters rally at the Bigger Than Roe National Mobilization March in the rotunda of the Capital in Madison, on January 22, 2022.
The state capitol in Madison, Wisconsin.

Overview

  • The majority opinion held that fifty years of comprehensive abortion regulations so thoroughly governed the procedure that they supplanted the 1849 felony ban.
  • Justices left intact a 2015 statute banning abortions after 20 weeks while affirming a lower court’s decision that consensual procedures remain legal.
  • Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul’s 2022 lawsuit argued that laws passed under Roe v. Wade impliedly repealed the old ban, a position the high court upheld.
  • Two landmark state Supreme Court elections in 2023 and April 2025 shifted the bench to a liberal 4-3 majority that determined the outcome.
  • A separate Planned Parenthood challenge over a state constitutional right to abortion is still pending before the court and may prompt further litigation.