17-05-2025
Wisconsin Republican convention delegates back resolution to enforce strict 1849 abortion law
ROTHSCHILD – Wisconsin Republican delegates at their state convention approved a party resolution calling for the state to enforce an 1849 abortion law — a stance that touches on an issue that has caused trouble for the party in recent elections.
The May 17 vote carries no authority, but it reflected a willingness from grassroots Republicans in the state to embrace a position on abortion at odds with some of the state's top party leaders.
Democrats have leaned heavily on abortion as a motivator in races both in Wisconsin and across the country. The issue played an outsized role in the 2023 state Supreme Court race that flipped the court into liberal control. Some Republicans in the state and elsewhere have sought to distance themselves from positions that would outlaw almost all abortions.
More: The word you seldom hear during Republican National Convention speeches: abortion
The 1849 law went into effect in the state after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion case. It was interpreted at the time as banning doctors from performing abortions in every case except when the mother would die without the procedure.
But a Dane County judge in December 2023 ruled that the old law does not prohibit abortions. That ruling returned Wisconsin to its abortion laws from before the country's high court overturned Roe v. Wade; abortions in the state are now banned 20 weeks after 'probable fertilization.' That case is now before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
The resolution was adopted alongside a slew of others at the Republican Party of Wisconsin's annual convention in Rothschild.
Other resolutions adopted included those calling for banning central counts to tabulate absentee votes during elections and seeking to require areas using central counts to finish calculating all their votes no later than two hours after polls close.
They also passed a resolution endorsing a ban on same-day voter registration.
When it comes to abortion, though, some of Wisconsin's top elected Republicans have said the issue should be up to individual states and have largely declined to take a firm stance.
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, the highest-ranking Republican in the state, has said the issue should be decided through a referendum, though that would require amending the state constitution — something Republicans who control the state Legislature have rejected.
More: At Wisconsin GOP convention, Ron Johnson urges party faithful to unify on abortion
The resolution called to 'reaffirm the sanctity of all human life and reestablish legal protection of innocent human life from fertilization to natural death through legislation and a human life amendment to both the state and federal constitutions.'
It demanded 'that our state legislators support and pass legislation allowing individuals and/or institutions in the health care field to exempt themselves from any and all abortion procedures.'
Delegates moved to consider the resolution separately from others, though there was ultimately little debate on it.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Republican convention backs strict 1849 abortion law
