Gov. Evers Calls Special Session to Defend Reproductive Health Care Access

Gov. Tony Evers signed an executive order last week calling the Wisconsin State Legislature to a special session June 22 to take up legislation to repeal Wisconsin’s criminal abortion ban. 

The governor’s special-session call comes as a draft U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization – regarding a Mississippi law prohibiting abortions after 15 weeks without exceptions for rape or incest – revealed that the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade. 

Wisconsin remains one of several states with existing criminal statutes enacted before Roe became the law of the land nearly 50 years ago that prohibits nearly all abortions. In the event the Supreme Court overturns Roe, Wisconsin’s abortion ban that originated in 1849 – and which provides no exceptions for abortion in the cases of rape or incest – could go back into effect.

“Every single Wisconsinite should have the right to consult their family, their faith and their doctor to make a reproductive health care decision that is right for them,” Evers said in a statement. “And every single Wisconsinite should be able to make that deeply personal decision without interference from politicians who don’t know anything about their life circumstances, values or responsibilities.”