MADISON, Wis. (AP) \u2014 The Wisconsin Supreme Court\u2019s liberal majority struck down the state\u2019s 176-year-old abortion ban on Wednesday, ruling 4-3 that it was superseded by newer state laws regulating the procedure, including statutes that criminalize abortions only after a fetus can survive outside the womb.<\/p>\n
The ruling came as no surprise given that liberal justices control the court. One of them went so far as to promise to uphold abortion rights during her campaign two years ago, and they blasted the ban during oral arguments<\/a> in November.<\/p>\n Ban outlawed destroying \u2018an unborn child\u2019<\/p>\n The statute Wisconsin legislators adopted in 1849, widely interpreted as a near-total ban on abortions, made it a felony for anyone other than the mother or a doctor in a medical emergency to destroy \u201can unborn child.\u201d<\/p>\n The ban was in effect until 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s landmark Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide nullified it. Legislators never officially repealed it, however, and conservatives argued that the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s 2022 decision to overturn Roe reactivated it.<\/p>\n Ruling: Post-Roe laws effectively replaced ban<\/p>\n Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, filed a lawsuit<\/a> that year arguing that abortion restrictions enacted by Republican legislators during the nearly half-century that Roe was in effect trumped the ban. Kaul specifically cited a 1985 law that essentially permits abortions until viability. Some babies can survive with medical help after 21 weeks of gestation.<\/p>\n Lawmakers also enacted abortion restrictions under Roe requiring women to undergo ultrasounds, wait 24 hours before having the procedure and provide written consent, and receive abortion-inducing drugs only from doctors during an in-person visit.<\/p>\n \u201cThat comprehensive legislation so thoroughly covers the entire subject of abortion that it was clearly meant as a substitute for the 19th century near-total ban on abortion,\u201d Justice Rebeca Dallet wrote for the majority.<\/p>\n Sheboygan County District Attorney Joel Urmanski, a Republican, defended the ban in court, arguing that it can coexist with the newer abortion restrictions.<\/p>\n