For Immediate Release
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
Contact:
For gubernatorial inquiries — Melanie Conklin, melaniec@wisdems.org
For 2018 Senate race inquiries — Brad Bainum, bradb@wisdems.org
GOP’s Latest Attack on WI Women’s Health Care Becomes Law
The measure, cosponsored by U.S. Senate candidate Leah Vukmir, was signed into law yesterday by Gov. Scott Walker
MADISON — Gov. Scott Walker yesterday signed into law Wisconsin Republicans’ latest assault on Wisconsin women’s health care access, a dangerous measure cosponsored by right-wing anti-choice U.S. Senate candidate Leah Vukmir.
The law will prohibit thousands of Wisconsin public employees from accessing a full range of health care options, including abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. The measure is so restrictive that victims of sexual assault would only receive abortion coverage under the measure “if they reported their assaults to police.”
State Sen. Vukmir, who supports a hardline zero-exception abortion ban and has championed other right-wing anti-choice measures in Wisconsin, helped push the bill through the state Senate in February.
Wisconsin anti-choice groups are ecstatic at Walker, Vukmir, and their right-wing legislative counterparts’ latest effort to deny Wisconsin women critical health care access. Pro-Life Wisconsin — which has previously endorsed Vukmir, and requires that candidates it supports back personhood measures that would ban all abortions and even some common forms of birth control — cheered the law, as did other right-wing anti-choice groups across the state.
“With Leah Vukmir at his side, Gov. Scott Walker has persistently undercut Wisconsin women’s rights — from repealing equal pay protections to gutting preventative health care, birth control access and restricting a woman’s right to control her own body,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesperson Melanie Conklin. “Walker and Vukmir’s latest effort to take away women state employees’ access to a full range of health care options should sadly surprise no one.”
