Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin (PPWI) filed a lawsuit on Sept. 10 asking state courts to assert women’s right to abortion, according to a PPWI press release.
The group filed the suit on the basis that current requirements — only physicians can perform abortions and there must be a 24-hour time delay between requesting and receiving an abortion — are “medically unjustified.”
The lawsuit from PPWI comes after abortion access for University of Wisconsin-Madison students and Wisconsinites has been shaky in the years since the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs v. Jackson decision.
At the beginning of October 2025, PPWI discontinued abortion care at its Madison office due to Medicaid cuts from the passage of President Donald Trump’s 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Three weeks later, PPWI continued its abortion services after reclassifying its organization’s Essential Community Provider status in order to fall in line with the bill’s requirements for receiving Medicaid funds.
Roe v. Wade protected abortion access federally through the right to privacy, which was granted due to “substantive due process,” political science Professor Emeritus Howard Schweber told The Daily Cardinal.
When the Dobbs v. Jackson case was decided, protections for abortion in line with the U.S. Constitution were abolished, which caused what Schweber called “trigger laws” to take effect.
In Wisconsin, an 1849 law describing “any person, other than the mother, who intentionally destroys the life of an unborn child is guilty of a felony” was triggered, which was originally interpreted to ban abortion. In the July 2025 Kaul v. Urmanski case, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled the law did not restrict abortion.
With PPWI’s landmark lawsuit, the organization is asking the Wisconsin courts to affirm access to reproductive healthcare as part of the Wisconsin Constitution’s Declaration of Rights.
“For too long, politicians have put barriers between patients and the care they need,” President and CEO of PPWI Tanya Atkinson said in a press release. “We are asking the courts to protect the freedom of Wisconsinites to make those decisions for themselves.”
Pro-Life Wisconsin, an anti-abortion group that advocates for abortion bans without any exceptions, disagrees with PPWI’s stance.
“There is no right to abortion in the Wisconsin Constitution,” Pro-Life Wisconsin State Director Dan Miller said in a press release. “Any effort to find one is purely arbitrary.”
The Wisconsin State Supreme Court can take the case in two different directions, according to Schweber.
Schweber said if the court rules against PPWI in the lawsuit, the state would uphold current views of how abortion should be protected nationally: through the right of privacy under substantive due process. If the court were to rule in favor of PPWI, abortion would be protected under a new interpretation of the state constitution.
“What the state Supreme Court is being invited to do is to create a general rule under the state constitution that where there isn’t a sufficient justification for a law, it should be deemed unconstitutional for that reason,” Schweber said.
The U.S. Supreme Court has recently taken a step back from protecting rights with issues like abortion, gerrymandering and campaign finance, according to Schweber.
Shortly after the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz was elected shortly before the 1849 law made it to the state Supreme Court, flipping the court to a liberal majority for the first time in 15 years. Since then, justices Susan Crawford and Chris Taylor have been elected to the court with abortion as a key issue for both.
Since the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, Wisconsinites have elected three Supreme Court justices — Janet Protasiewicz, Susan Crawford and Chris Taylor — leading to a 5-2 liberal majority on the court.
Crawford previously served as an attorney for PPWI before her career as a judge. Protasiewicz, Crawford and Taylor were all endorsed by PPWI in their respective races for Supreme Court.
Current congressman and Republican candidate for governor Tom Tiffany said he would uphold current abortion laws if elected, according to WisPolitics.
Democratic candidate for governor David Crowley endorsed PPWI’s lawsuit in a press release.
“I don’t want my daughters to live in a world where they have fewer options for care than their mother or grandmother,” Crowley said.
Staff writer
