In this op-ed, Lucy Ripp with A Better Wisconsin Together reflects on the state of abortion rights in Wisconsin two years after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
June 24, 2024, marks two years since the MAGA-controlled U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a precedent that federally protected our right to access abortion care for nearly 50 years.
Two years on, MAGA leader Donald Trump is still bragging about the major part he played in rolling back our reproductive freedoms, and now says he wants to put state politicians in charge of our personal decisions on abortion.
In Wisconsin, we know all too well the danger that can come from putting GOP state lawmakers in charge of making decisions about our access to reproductive health care.
As soon as Trump and his MAGA allies took away our constitutionally protected right to abortion access with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Republican state legislators in Wisconsin tried to use a statute from the 1800s to block Wisconsinites from accessing abortion care and to threaten doctors with felony charges for performing that care.
But Wisconsinites came together to show our opposition to having our rights taken away, and reproductive rights advocates won a court decision allowing abortion care to resume, for now, in Wisconsin.
In response, state Republicans stooped to a new low in their crusade against reproductive freedom, proposing a new abortion ban that would put themselves in charge of constituents’ decisions about abortion care, where they have no business.
Similar trends are happening in the U.S. Senate. Earlier this month, Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson voted against the Right to Contraception Act, a federal bill that would protect our right to access birth control without interference from politicians.
Time and time again, Wisconsinites have come together and demanded that we want safe and legal abortion access in the Badger State. Two years post-Roe v. Wade, we must keep making our voices heard and demanding that our elected leaders stop forcing their way into our exam rooms and start supporting protections for abortion care.
Call your state (1-800-362-9472) and federal (202-224-3121) lawmakers today to remind them that politicians have no business mandating decisions that ought to be made between a patient and their doctor.
Related: Trump says he would allow red states to track pregnancies, prosecute abortion ban violators
