Walker, who calls himself 100% pro-life, is no stranger to habitually crossing the line when it comes to women’s ability to make their own healthcare decisions. The governor’s efforts to undermine a woman’s freedom to make her own health care decisions stretches all the way back to his nearly nine-year record in the state Assembly.
In 1998, then-Rep. Scott Walker took his agenda further, co-authoring a bill that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks, even in cases of rape, incest, or when the mother’s health was in jeopardy, with a penalty of life imprisonment for physicians who performed the procedure. The bill also defined a “child” as the fetus “from the time of fertilization until it is completely delivered.”
When Walker announced his gubernatorial run in 2010, he earned the endorsement of Pro-Life Wisconsin, a group which takes a hardline on the abortion issue, lobbying aggressively for a ban without exceptions even in the case of rape, incest, or to save the mother’s life. Just yesterday, the group has vowed to “not rest until abortion is abolished in Wisconsin.” When abortion is illegal it doesn’t go away, it just becomes unsafe.
“Putting the health and lives of women at risk and disregarding the medical communities objections to further a political agenda is completely unacceptable. Scott Walker’s past and present record show there isn’t a line he won’t cross to violate a woman’s ability to make her own health care decisions,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Communications Director Melissa Baldauff said on Friday. “Now, with a major player on the extreme right vowing to abolish abortions in our state, we have to wonder if Walker will go so far as to completely outlaw safe and legal abortions. Scott Walker owes it to all Wisconsin citizens – not just women – to stop running from his record on this very important issue.”
