Wisconsin Attorney General Wants State Supreme Court Rule on Women's Rights Protected by State Constitution

Friday, March 15th, 2024 -- 12:00 PM

(Margaret Faust, Wisconsin Public Radio) If the Wisconsin Supreme Court agrees to hear a closely-watched abortion lawsuit, Attorney General Josh Kaul says he’ll ask for a ruling on whether a woman’s right to choose is protected by the state constitution.

According to Margaret Faust with Wisconsin Public Radio, the pledge by Kaul, made in a petition to the court filed by the state Department of Justice, drew a sharp rebuke from anti-abortion groups, who filed their own legal brief this week calling on justices to reject the argument.

Both filings are connected to a lawsuit Kaul filed in 2022, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The attorney general won at the circuit court level when a Dane County judge said last year that a 19th century Wisconsin law does not prohibit abortions.

That ruling has been appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court by Sheboygan County District Attorney Joel Urmanski, a Republican who is defending the law. Kaul petitioned the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Feb. 27 to bypass the Court of Appeals and take the case.

Should that happen, the DOJ told the court it would ask justices to resolve larger constitutional questions. “Wisconsin women also deserve clarity on their state constitutional rights,” read the DOJ’s petition, which said the state constitution guaranteed multiple rights, “including a woman’s rights to control over her body.”

In an interview with WPR Wednesday, Kaul said Wisconsinites can have a final, definitive ruling on the enforceability. “This is a topic that is going to come up in numerous cases in all likelihood in the years ahead,” Kaul said. “I believe it makes sense and will provide greater certainty sooner.”

He said his argument is rooted in the language of the state constitution pertaining to liberty and equal protection, and in case law which grants protection to bodily autonomy.

Three Wisconsin anti-abortion groups, Wisconsin Right to Life, Wisconsin Family Action and Pro-Life Wisconsin, filed a motion Tuesday asking to intervene in the case, saying Kaul’s petition was “procedurally improper.”

They’re being represented by the Thomas More Society and the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, or WILL, both conservative legal organizations.

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