Former Planned Parenthood attorney seeks seat on Wisconsin Supreme Court

On April 1, Wisconsin voters will go to the polls to elect the state’s newest Wisconsin Supreme Court justice — and the election has stirred up debate surrounding the issue of abortion and recusal.

County Court Judge Susan Crawford and County Court Judge Brad Schimel, the former state attorney general, are both running.  Whoever is voted into the vacant justice position will have a long-term effect on the court and the cases it decides. Currently, the court leans liberal, but as a liberal justice is stepping down, there is an opportunity for a conservative judge to step in and give conservatives the majority once again. If liberals continue to hold the majority, they could do so until 2028.

Crawford previously worked as an attorney with Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the ACLU Reproductive Rights Project, helping to obtain a permanent block on the 2011 Wisconsin law requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their abortion facility. Pro-lifers are concerned that this relationship — though the case took place a decade ago — would present a conflict of interest for Crawford on any upcoming abortion-related cases at the state Supreme Court. They are concerned that, should she win, she would choose not to recuse herself from such cases.

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When asked about this, Crawford stated, “The law does not require judges to automatically recuse just because they have done some kind of legal work in the past as a lawyer.”

According to the Wisconsin Legislative Council, a judge should consider recusal “when a direct, personal, substantial, pecuniary interest exists.” It adds, “Also, there may be circumstances in which experience teaches that the probability of bias is too high to be constitutionally tolerable.”

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is currently deciding a case concerning an 1849 law that prohibits abortion with a few exceptions. When Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022, abortionists in the state stopped committing abortion because of that law, which states that “any person, other than the mother, who intentionally destroys the life of the unborn child” could be guilty of a felony and face up to 15 years in prison unless the mother’s life was determined to be at risk. Abortion advocates argue that the law only applies when the mother has not consented to the abortion.

According to The New York Times, Crawford’s supporters claim that “electing her will preserve abortion rights in the state.”

Writing for the Washington Post, Patrick Marley noted, “Democrats in Wisconsin in recent years have been better than Republicans at getting voters to show up for low-turnout court elections, leading to some blowout races. But conservatives believe Trump’s narrow victory in the state in November could give them the momentum they need to win the court seat on April 1.”