Planned Parenthood pauses abortions in Wisconsin

Planned Parenthood will stop committing abortions in Wisconsin as the Trump administration's efforts to partially defund the abortion chain continue. Meanwhile, pro-abortion legislators in the state are attempting to pass a bill protecting abortion.

Key Takeaways:

• This summer, the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down an 1849 law protecting preborn children from abortion.

• President Trump's so-called "Big Beautiful Bill" was signed into law earlier this year, banning federal Medicaid funding for abortion facilities, including Planned Parenthood, for one year.

• Planned Parenthood in Wisconsin has announced it will temporarily stop committing abortions in response to defunding.

• Democrats in Wisconsin have introduced legislation to remove safety restrictions on abortion.

The Details:

Planned Parenthood will temporarily stop committing abortions in Wisconsin, although it will continue providing non-abortion services. “Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin will continue to provide the full spectrum of reproductive health care, including abortion, as soon and as we are able to,” Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin President and CEO Tanya Atkinson said in a statement. “In the meantime, we are pursuing every available option through the courts, through operations, and civic engagement.”

Under the Trump administration's bill, Planned Parenthood will lose federal Medicaid funding for one year. However, Planned Parenthood and other abortion corporations will still receive federal funding through Title X and other government grants.

Wisconsin is among 22 abortion-supporting states, along with the District of Columbia, that have filed a lawsuit to stop the defunding.

New analysis confirms American women do not need Planned Parenthood for health care

In response to the defunding and the announcement from Planned Parenthood, Wisconsin Democrats have introduced legislation overturning what State Senator Kelda Roys and Representative Lisa Subeck deem to be “politically motivated restrictions” on abortion. These include a waiting period, a requirement that the abortionist who commits the abortion be the same one who initially consults with the patient, protections for women against telehealth abortions, and the requirement that only physicians can commit abortions.

“We certainly can do everything we can in Wisconsin to make sure that the existing two independent clinics that provide abortion services are able to see as many patients as they possibly can,” Roys said. “And try to absorb some of the loss of service availability of Planned Parenthood and open the door to make sure that patients in Wisconsin don’t suffer access restrictions, that patients in other states don’t have to suffer.”

Subeck further added that restoring abortion access was an urgent need for Wisconsin residents.

“In our state, we have a number of laws on the books that make it really challenging, if not impossible, for providers to provide abortion care,” Subeck said. “This is why Planned Parenthood, pausing their abortion services, so drastically limits abortion access in Wisconsin that it is at crisis proportions.”

Planned Parenthood is not an irreplaceable health care provider upon which women rely.

The Backstory:

After two years of court battles, the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down an 1849 law protecting preborn children from abortion. A circuit court judge initially struck down the law in 2023, and Sheboygan County District Attorney Joel Urmanski filed a petition asking the state's Supreme Court to weigh in on the issue. The 1849 statute reads:

Any person, other than the mother, who intentionally destroys the life of an unborn child is guilty of a Class H felony.

The law had initially been reactivated after the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Dane County Circuit Judge Diane Schlipper ruled that this referred to feticide and not abortion, meaning the killing of a preborn child by an abortionist would still be legal, and the statute is only in regards to a violent crime committed against a pregnant woman which causes the death of her preborn child. This ruling allowed abortions to be committed through 20 weeks gestation again.

Wisconsin Supreme Court justices issued a split decision, 4-3, and in the majority opinion, held that newer laws outweighed the 1849 law. “We conclude that comprehensive legislation enacted over the last 50 years regulating in detail the ‘who, what, where, when, and how’ of abortion so thoroughly covers the entire subject of abortion that it was meant as a substitute for the 19th century near-total ban on abortion,” Justice Rebecca Dallet wrote. “Accordingly, we hold that the legislature impliedly repealed [the 1849 ban] to abortion, and that [that law] therefore does not ban abortion in the State of Wisconsin.”

One of the justices is a former attorney for Planned Parenthood, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court is also currently considering a Planned Parenthood lawsuit seek to declare abortion as a constitutional "right."

The Bottom Line:

Women in Wisconsin deserve better than Planned Parenthood and abortion, but as pro-abortion legislators and justices take power, women's true needs are being ignored in favor of propping up the abortion industry at all costs.