Wisconsin Democrats Abandon Rule of Law to Protect Abortion

In Wisconsin, as in other states, the governor is charged with a duty to “take care that the laws shall be faithfully executed.” He or she takes an oath, promising to support the constitutions of the United States and Wisconsin and to faithfully discharge this duty. But the state’s current governor, Tony Evers, has a unique take on that obligation. Calling the recent United States Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization “bullsh**,” Evers has announced that he will grant clemency to any physician who is charged with violating a state statute prohibiting abortion. (A woman obtaining an abortion cannot be charged under the law.) In categorically promising to excuse all violations of this particular law, Evers has arrogated to himself the power to rescind it. On abortion, he believes himself to be not only governor but judge and lawmaker.

The problem, Evers says, is that the law is just too old. Wisconsin’s abortion law provides that life begins at conception, prohibits even “pre-quickening” abortion, and has an exception only for those cases where the procedure is necessary to save the life of the mother. It was signed into law on March 31, 1849, as one of the newly admitted state’s homicide statutes, and it has been amended several times in the ensuing 100 years. Although the legislature has enacted numerous other abortion regulations during the almost 50 years that the 1849 law was unenforceable due to Roe v. Wade, this early broad prohibition on abortion was pointedly not repealed. While one might think that such a statute has enjoyed a robust public commitment, Wisconsin’s reproductive plenipotentiary sees things differently. For Governor Evers, the fact that the law was “written before the Civil War, or before women secured the right to vote” somehow means that it ought not be enforced. Because, I suppose, Dobbs was “bullsh**.”

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Rick Esenberg

Rick Esenberg is the president and general counsel of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty.

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In Wisconsin, as in other states, the governor is charged with a duty to “take care that the laws shall be faithfully executed.” He or she takes an oath, promising to support the constitutions of the United States and Wisconsin and to faithfully discharge this duty. But the state’s current governor, Tony Evers, has a unique take on that obligation. Calling the recent United States Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization “bullsh**,” Evers has announced that he will grant clemency to any physician who is charged with violating a state statute prohibiting abortion. (A woman obtaining an abortion cannot be charged under the law.) In categorically promising to excuse all violations of this particular law, Evers has arrogated to himself the power to rescind it. On abortion, he believes himself to be not only governor but judge and lawmaker.

The problem, Evers says, is that the law is just too old. Wisconsin’s abortion law provides that life begins at conception, prohibits even “pre-quickening” abortion, and has an exception only for those cases where the procedure is necessary to save the life of the mother. It was signed into law on March 31, 1849, as one of the newly admitted state’s homicide statutes, and it has been amended several times in the ensuing 100 years. Although the legislature has enacted numerous other abortion regulations during the almost 50 years that the 1849 law was unenforceable due to Roe v. Wade, this early broad prohibition on abortion was pointedly not repealed. While one might think that such a statute has enjoyed a robust public commitment, Wisconsin’s reproductive plenipotentiary sees things differently. For Governor Evers, the fact that the law was “written before the Civil War, or before women secured the right to vote” somehow means that it ought not be enforced. Because, I suppose, Dobbs was “bullsh**.”