ICYMI: “The Future Of Abortion Rights Will Essentially Be On The Ballot In 2024”
MADISON, Wis. — On the one year anniversary of the disastrous Dobbs Supreme Court decision, Wisconsin Democrats called out Republicans for their radical, anti-freedom agenda, and emphasized that the way we’ll be able to prevent Republicans from passing a national abortion ban is by re-electing Senator Tammy Baldwin.
Senator Baldwin is leading the fight to protect reproductive freedoms in Wisconsin and nationwide.
See below for more coverage:
- One year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the right to an abortion remains central to Democrats’ political operations in Wisconsin as the state party seeks to keep U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin in office — a key race to keeping the U.S. Senate in Democrats’ hands
- “The fight for reproductive freedom is on in 2024,” Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler said, adding that the biggest question is whether there will be federal legislation to protect abortion rights or a national abortion ban.
- Baldwin echoed those concerns in a video last week.
- “I refuse to let the next generation of women be left with fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers,” she said.
WaPo: Republicans struggle with abortion one year after Dobbs
- While there’s no obvious Republican Senate candidate in Wisconsin yet, the state will be a battleground next year, with Biden seeking to win a state he carried by less than a point in 2020 and Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin running for reelection.
- “There’s no more galvanizing or persuasive issue than abortion,” said Ben Wikler, the Wisconsin Democratic Party’s chairman. “In 2024, the fight will not be about Wisconsin’s pre-Civil War abortion ban — it will be about whether to institute a national abortion ban or national protections for reproductive freedom.”
- Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who opposes abortion, narrowly won reelection last year even as Democratic Gov. Tony Evers was reelected running on his support for abortion rights. Johnson said he expected abortion to be as animating in 2024 as it was in last year’s races.
Newsweek: Year After Dobbs, Democrats and Republicans Lay 2024 Abortion Battle Plans
- Wisconsin Congressman Tom Tiffany, who’s considering a 2024 Senate bid, co-sponsored legislation that would ban abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, which can develop around six weeks. Critics of such measures have argued that many women do not know they are pregnant within that timeframe.
- In Wisconsin, a state critical to the presidential race and control of the Senate, all abortions, except for those endangering the life of the mother, are illegal due to a law from 1849. Democrats are working to galvanize support around the issue, hoping to build off the momentum from the April race for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, where liberal Judge Janet Protasiewicz made it clear she favored overturning the 1849 law and rode the issue to victory.
- Arik Wolk, rapid response director for Wisconsin Democrats, said his party is looking to build off that momentum heading into 2024. During the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, he said voters in both rural and suburban areas noted the issue during door-knocking conversations. He argued that that concern will carry into 2024, and the party plans to keep speaking with voters on the ground as Democrats look to flip the state’s first and third congressional district as well as maintain control of its senate seat.
- Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin, who will be defending that seat, agreed with Wolk’s assessment of the issue’s significance and offered insight on how her constituents view of the issue in wake of the one-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision.
The Messenger: Democrats Seize on Dobbs Anniversary to Energize Voters
- Wisconsin’s Democratic Party sent out press memos about Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany and potential Republican Senate candidate David Clarke, specifically pointing out their records on abortion.
- Last year, voters in Kentucky and Kansas rejected anti-abortion ballot initiatives, Michiganders voted to create a state constitutional right to reproductive freedom, and earlier this year, a candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court won after running on supporting abortion access.
- Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin told the story of a woman in her home state who had to wait to receive medical care for a miscarriage until she got sick enough that doctors didn’t fear legal repercussions.
- She also spoke about a woman who had to leave the state to access abortion, noting the state’s abortion law was written in 1849 and took effect again after the Dobbs decision last summer.
- “Living under that draconian criminal ban has been nothing short of dire for Wisconsin families,” Baldwin said.
Spectrum News: Democrats Reflect on Dobbs Anniversary
- “Wisconsin Democrats say the future of abortion rights will essentially be on the ballot in 2024.”
WISC: Wisconsin Democrats rally at Capitol ahead of anniversary of abortion decision
- Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that reversed the longstanding Roe v. Wade precedent protecting abortion rights, Democratic officials gathered at Wisconsin’s Capitol Thursday to highlight how the issue has shaped the state’s political landscape.
- Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler said the 2024 election will be in part a nationwide referendum on abortion rights and that Wisconsin will be a key state. He argued Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin is an “essential leader” on legislation surrounding reproductive health and that keeping her in office could be pivotal in a narrowly divided Senate.
WORT: Upcoming Dobbs Decision Anniversary Prompts Action From Lawmakers
- Ben Wikler discussed the importance of the 2024 election to protect reproductive rights, hitting home a favorite rallying point for Democrats in which they use the issue of reproductive rights to increase funding and voter turnout.
- He points to the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would prevent governments from regulating abortions before viability. A previous version has been approved by the United States House, but has failed in the Senate: “[…] what happens in 2024 will hinge on Wisconsin. And it will hinge, not just in the Presidential race, but also in the fight for the Senate majority. Because the question of whether the United States Senate will pass the Women’s Health Protection Act to write the protections from Roe v. Wade, the protections for reproductive freedom into law, will depend on what might be yet again a one-seat majority in the US Senate. And the Senator most critical to that majority is Senator Tammy Baldwin.”
- The Women’s Health Protection Act is one of numerous bills in Congress seeking to write abortion and contraception access into federal law.
- “Despite this assault on our freedoms, Wisconsinites are not sitting back. And I promise I’m not sitting back, either. Until our freedoms are restored, I’m going to keep fighting for women in Wisconsin and every corner of our nation to have the right to an abortion.”
- “As I’m leading the charge to codify into federal law the right to choose, I’m also supporting legislation that will ensure Wisconsinites can get the health care they need in the meantime.”
MSNBC: The post-Dobbs reality is horrific. Republicans want to go even further.
- And though the reality is already horrific, Republicans are preparing to go even further.
- Senate Democrats put forward four common sense bills that should not be controversial or partisan: the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act to ensure women can travel to another state for an abortion; the Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act to ensure doctors can provide an abortion in states where it is legal without fear they will be thrown in prison; the Right to Contraception Act to simply protect the right to birth control; and the Uphold Privacy Act to keep your online health and location data private so it can’t be used against you.
- Republicans blocked every single bill.
- Women will not be silent. We will not be ignored. Women will keep speaking up, telling their stories, making their voices heard, especially at the ballot box.
- As Americans consider how they will vote in future elections, they should understand there is a clear choice before them. Democrats are fighting to restore Roe and your freedoms, but as the country saw this week, Republicans remain hell-bent on inserting themselves into families’ personal decisions and imposing a radical, anti-abortion agenda that forces women to stay pregnant no matter what.
- Sharing her thoughts about the issue, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., insisted in a video message that the ruling from the “activist Supreme Court” was “devastating for the health, safety and future of millions of women across America.”
- “Having the freedom to control your health care, your body and your future, free from government interference, is a fundamental right,” she said.
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