U.S. Senator Details Ramifications of Home State’s Abortion Ban

Immediately after Roe v. Wade was overturned, abortion restrictions took effect in Wisconsin owing to a 19th century law, which had significant ramifications throughout the state, said Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) during the Politico Health Care Summit last week.

“We’re one of 14 states with a near total ban on abortion care, and it is impacting people’s lives,” she said.

While Wisconsin did not have a “trigger ban” — legislation that automatically set in motion a prohibition on abortion following Roe‘s reversal — the state’s 1849 law had virtually the same impact. Josh Kaul (D), Wisconsin’s attorney general, sued to block the abortion ban in June 2022.

In theory, the law includes an exception to preserve the life of the mother, said Baldwin, but in practice those exceptions appear to mean very little.

She recounted how a pregnant woman whose water broke at 17 weeks was sent home from the hospital instead of receiving care. Hospital lawyers were likely advising the doctors on just how sick the woman needed to be for the hospital to avoid criminal charges, said Baldwin.

“Lawyers should not be practicing medicine,” she said.

The abortion ban had other affects on care, Baldwin noted: Practicing ob/gyns moved out of state to northern Illinois and eastern Minnesota to continue providing comprehensive care, meaning fewer ob/gyns are now practicing in Wisconsin.

“That’s going to lead to greater disparities. We already have too many,” she said.

In addition, Baldwin added, there’s been a 10% reduction in students applying to medical school, which will have long-term consequences on the supply of physicians in the state.

Some Democrats, including Baldwin, have called for a carveout to the filibuster in order to pass legislation that would codify Roe v. Wade into law and preserve access to abortion, without requiring the 6o votes in the Senate needed to override a filibuster.

“I suspect if we could pass legislation on a simple majority that the Women’s Health Protection Act would pass today,” she said. “Certainly it would be difficult in this particular moment to get filibuster reform, but I think that should be a near-term goal.”

Asked whether it’s true that Democrats will have to define what abortion restrictions should be allowed, Baldwin said the party has already done that and it’s written into the bill.

“It’s basically pre-viability and post-viability, and it leaves to medical science the definition of how many weeks that is,” she said.

Outside of reproductive health, Baldwin also shared her concerns around the mental health and safety of the LGBTQ community, and transgender youth and adults in particular, citing a recent New York Times article that highlighted the significant lack of data on suicide rates in these groups.

“It’s really important that we get that data,” said Baldwin, who in 1999 became the first openly gay woman elected to Congress.

Without numbers, it’s hard to make a case for targeting more resources and services to address the problems in this community.

Her solution, the LGBTQ Data Inclusion Act, would require all federally funded surveys to include questions about sexual orientation and gender identity. With regard to privacy concerns, she stressed that the information is anonymized in the data and confidentiality requirements would be embedded in the survey tools.

And speaking in broad strokes, she also touched on other concerns that worry her about the healthcare system, most of them related to access.

“There are still folks for whom the healthcare they need is out of reach financially, out of reach geographically,” Baldwin said. “That should not be the case in 2023.”