Wisconsin GOP Governor Leads '11th Hour Attack' on Women's Choice

In yet another GOP-led “campaign to outlaw abortion,” Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker launched an eleventh hour attack on reproductive rights on Friday when he signed an anti-choice bill into law with two restrictions designed to severely limit women’s right to abortions within the state.

The law, which goes into effect Monday, requires that women undergo an ultrasound before terminating a pregnancy and bans doctors without admitting privileges at nearby hospitals from performing the procedure.

The ACLU of Wisconsin and Planned Parenthood, outraged by the proposal, filed a lawsuit on Friday challenging the law. 

“This law will drastically limit a woman’s ability to obtain a safe and legal abortion in Wisconsin by imposing burdensome and medically unnecessary requirements on doctors that provide this essential care,” said Larry Dupuis, legal director for ACLU of Wisconsin, in a joint press release. “This law was rammed through the legislature in a matter of days and now, with a stroke of his pen, the governor has put the very health and wellbeing of Wisconsin women and families at immediate risk.”

Deputy Director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project Talcott Camp said that this “eleventh hour attack” has forced Wisconsin to join “the ranks of Mississippi, Alabama, and others, in a national campaign to outlaw abortion.” 

“Enough is enough,” he continued. “Politicians can no longer be permitted to shut down clinics that provide safe abortions and prevent a woman from making the best decision for her and her family.”

As the Huffington Post reports, the ultrasound requirement compels doctors not only to perform the test but also to meet with patients to discuss the findings, with an emphasis on pointing out the fetus’ organs and external features.  Supporters make no attempt to mask their intentions, saying that they hope this “will help the woman bond with the fetus and convince her to save it.”