Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin -Madison
After the July ruling from Dane County Judge Diane Schlipper, 'there were a lot of conversations with physicians, legal analysis, and work with stakeholders on when we could move forward,' says Planned Parenthood's Tanya Atkinson.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin president and CEO Tanya Atkinson doesn’t anticipate any hiccups as the organization restarts abortion services in clinics in Madison and Milwaukee this week. “As of Monday, the team is ready,” Atkinson tells Isthmus. “The people of Wisconsin once again can access the full range of reproductive healthcare, including abortion.”
Isthmus reported in June that the organization was gearing up to restart abortion services following a ruling from Dane County Circuit Court Judge Diane Schlipper. In her decision, the judge wrote that “There is no such thing as an ‘1849 Abortion Ban’ in Wisconsin. A physician who performs a consensual medical abortion commits a crime only ‘after the fetus or unborn child reaches viability.” After the ruling, the organization researched the legal ramifications of resuming abortion services and the logistics.
“Obviously the most important piece we were waiting for was whether the law was enforceable,” says Atkinson. “Once we saw the July ruling from the Dane County Circuit Court, as one would imagine, there were a lot of conversations with physicians, legal analysis, and work with stakeholders on when we could move forward.”
Planned Parenthood suspended abortion services in Wisconsin on June 22, 2022, immediately after the U.S. Supreme Court released its opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the constitutional right to an abortion established by Roe v. Wade in 1973. An 1849 Wisconsin law that was never struck from the books has been widely interpreted as a criminal ban on abortion in the state.
Atkinson says that some of the staff that have been working in Illinois since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling will be returning to work in the Madison and Milwaukee clinics. Those clinics have remained open, as have other Planned Parenthood facilities around the state, providing reproductive healthcare services, including cancer screenings and STD tests. The clinic in Sheboygan, which did provide medicine abortion before the Supreme Court ruling, will not yet resume those services, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
The Madison and Milwaukee clinics will offer abortion pills up to 11 weeks of pregnancy and in-clinic surgical abortions up 20 weeks of pregnancy. Since Wisconsin requires an informational appointment and a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion, those seeking an abortion at the Madison or Milwaukee clinics will have to make a minimum of two visits to the clinic.
Atkinson says Planned Parenthood will have navigators available to answer questions about Wisconsin’s requirements and patients’ rights. She says there is already a great deal of financial support to help with the costs of abortion, including travel and overnight stays.
Some Wisconsinites may still travel to Illinois for an abortion. For those under 18, Wisconsin still requires permission from a parent or guardian or a court waiver for an abortion, while Illinois does not.
And in a potential reversal of the past year, Wisconsin clinics may ultimately get some out-of-state clients. In July, Iowa passed a law banning abortions after six weeks, before many people know they’re pregnant. That law was quickly blocked by a judge as a legal challenge plays out. But if the law goes into effect, the Madison clinic would become the closest Planned Parenthood facility offering abortion services to towns in northeast Iowa, including Dubuque.
Politicians and advocacy organizations traded news releases after Planned Parenthood announced it would resume abortion services. “Today’s announcement represents a paradigm shift in the abortion landscape in Wisconsin,” Democratic state Sen. Melissa Agard, who represents the area of Madison home to the Planned Parenthood clinic, said when the decision was announced last Thursday. “We cannot rest in our efforts to protect patients and support women and doctors as they navigate private health care decisions.”
Rep. Shelia Stubbs, a Democrat who represents the west side of Madison in the state Assembly, said she was “overjoyed.” “It is such a relief to know that Wisconsin is once again a safe place for people to seek the reproductive care they need,” wrote Stubbs.
Pro-Life Wisconsin maintained that the 1849 law is still valid and called for protests at Planned Parenthood facilities. “We will never rest until our pre-born brothers and sisters in Christ are protected as persons under the law from fertilization forward,” the organization said in a statement.
