March 31, 2023
by Matthew Rothschild, Executive Director
It was 174 years ago today that Gov. Nelson Dewey signed into law the ban on abortions in Wisconsin even in cases of rape and incest.
The date: March 31, 1849.
The bill had barely passed the assembly on March 10, 1849, by a vote of 28-26, with one single legislator’s vote tipping the balance. Three days later, it passed the Senate 9-3.
No women were in the Legislature at this time, of course. This was 70 years before women even had the right to vote. And it was 11 years before the outbreak of the Civil War.
That’s how archaic this law is.
And this archaic law lies at the center of contentious and costly Wisconsin Supreme Court race because Daniel Kelly and the anti-abortion forces that support him want to keep that law on the books, whereas Janet Protaseiwicz has signaled that she’d vote to overturn it. Already, Wisconsin’s attorney general, Josh Kaul, has a lawsuit challenging the law, and it’s likely to reach the Wisconsin Supreme Court in the next year or so.
So, yes, this 1849 law is on the ballot.
And the choice is up to the voters this coming Tuesday, April 4.