Wisconsin Attorney General Discusses Lawsuit Regarding State's Abortion Ban

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2022 -- 12:00 PM

(AP) Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said Monday that he wants his lawsuit challenging the state’s 173-year-old abortion ban to move quickly through the courts, but it could be months before anything happens after defense attorneys signaled they would try to dismiss it next year.

The case is almost certain to end up in the state Supreme Court. Conservative justices hold a one-vote majority on the court but Democrats are banking on a progressive candidate winning retiring Justice Patience Roggensack’s seat in April’s election, giving liberals the edge.

Impending delays in the abortion lawsuit make it likely the case could land at the court after the new justice takes the bench in August. Kaul, a Democrat, filed the lawsuit in June, days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

The case has languished in Dane County Circuit Court for nearly five months, in part because Kaul dismissed some Republican legislative leaders as defendants in September and instead sued district attorneys in Dane, Milwaukee and Sheboygan counties.

The GOP lawmakers had said they weren’t proper defendants because they couldn’t enforce the ban.

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