Surrounded by members of the abortion-rights community and legislative colleagues, state Rep. Terese Berceau, D-Madison, unveiled a bill Wednesday that would repeal an existing state statute criminalizing abortion.
Currently, the statute mandates that doctors assisting in abortion be jailed up to 15 years and fined a maximum of $50,000. Women seeking abortion could be charged with a felony, imprisoned up to three and a half years and face up to $10,000 in fines.
Berceau said with legislation like South Dakota's ban on almost all abortion setting legal battles into motion, Wisconsin needs to take the dangerous anti-abortion statute off the books.
We're here today on an important mission,\ Berceau said. ""The existing law is much more restrictive than South Dakota's [law].""
Dr. John Stevenson, professor of pediatrics at UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, said the statute would return Wisconsin to a ""nightmarish situation prior to Roe v. Wade.""
He said there was no greater inequality than unsafe abortion and if the statute was to remain, it would reinforce the ""unfairness of our system when unjust laws like this exist.""
One of the most powerful testimonies Wednesday morning came from Amanda Harrington, a survivor of sexual assault.
""I support the repeal of this ban because every choice that was made available to me after I was assaulted had proven invaluable in my struggle to re-establish the control over my life after I was raped,"" Harrington said. ""We must repeal Wisconsin's state statute banning abortions to give power to all women, particularly those who have lost all sense of it.""
In a statement Wednesday, Sue Armacost, legislative director for Wisconsin Right to Life, said Berceau's legislation is just one of a number of attempts made to repeal this statute.
""We will once again prevail in this latest attempt by pro-abortion legislators to leave unborn children completely unprotected if Roe v. Wade is overturned,"" Armacost said in a statement.
However, Berceau said she hoped lawmakers could build enough pressure to persuade abortion rights Republicans in the state legislature ""to vote their conscious as opposed to their power base.""
She added that this is an all-or-nothing fight with no room for compromise and exception.
""We're not talking about exception,"" Berceau said. ""A woman [needs to have] control over her body, and that's that.""
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