The Badger State’s highest bench has wiped a 176-year-old abortion prohibition off the books, ending a chapter of legal whiplash that began the moment Roe v. Wade fell.
According to the Washington Examiner, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled 4-3 on Wednesday that the 1849 statute no longer governs modern abortion policy, clearing the way for clinics that had been operating in limbo.
The liberal majority concluded that the Legislature quietly replaced the blanket ban decades ago when it adopted newer regulations—most notably a 1985 viability standard—rendering the antique threat of six years in prison and a $10,000 fine little more than legal museum art.
Justice Rebecca Dallet, writing for the four-member bloc, said lawmakers “effectively repealed” the ban through fifty years of incremental rules that address where, when, and how an abortion may occur.
Her opinion echoed Dane County Circuit Judge Diane Schlipper’s 2023 finding that the 1849 law targeted nonconsensual feticide rather than voluntary procedures, a reading that resurrected abortion services almost overnight and set the stage for Wednesday’s finale.
Dallet also left the door open, reminding legislators that they remain “free to change the laws” if they can assemble the votes, a polite way of saying stop leaning on relics and do your job in daylight.
Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul, both Democrats, filed suit minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court returned abortion decisions to the states in 2022, arguing that modern statutes superseded the horse-and-buggy-era prohibition.
Sheboygan County District Attorney Joel Urmanski, a Republican, countered that nothing in those later bills explicitly erased the old law; he urged the high court to reinstate it immediately rather than slog through appellate review.
The justices rejected that plea, cementing the viability framework—roughly 21 weeks, when some premature infants can survive with medical intervention—as Wisconsin’s operative boundary for now.
No one watching Wisconsin politics should feign surprise: liberal Janet Protasiewicz campaigned openly on protecting abortion rights and coasted into what is technically a nonpartisan seat last year, flipping the court’s ideological center of gravity.
Republicans banked on the old ban’s popularity and discovered, to their dismay, that most voters prefer clarity to nostalgia; the result handed progressives a working majority and a green light to revisit other culture-war flashpoints.
Voters doubled down in February by electing Susan Crawford—who once represented Planned Parenthood against GOP legislation—though she has not been sworn in and therefore had no hand in the latest ruling.
Practically speaking, Wednesday’s ruling removes the legal fog that had driven patients across state lines and forced doctors to lawyer up before picking up a stethoscope.
Politically, it tells lawmakers of every stripe that future restrictions must be explicit, contemporary, and able to withstand judicial scrutiny instead of leaning on statutes drafted when Wisconsin was still debating railroad routes.
Pro-life advocates will almost certainly regroup, perhaps pursuing heartbeat bills or tighter clinic standards, but they now confront a court that expects precision rather than broad-brush bans.
