MADISON – Wisconsin State Representative Tip McGuire made the following statement in response to the Dobbs decision by the United States Supreme Court:

“The United States government was unique in its founding because it was created to ensure the freedom of its citizens, to be a government of laws, not of men. Today’s decision strikes against the very promise of this nation’s founding. The Dobbs decision casts aside decades of legal precedent and elevates the personal beliefs of the people on the court over the law and the essential protections of the Constitution.

“Conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court declared today that the Constitution does not have any protections whatsoever for a woman – even one who was raped – not to carry a child against her will. Her life, her liberty, her pursuit of happiness are not promised, says the Court, but are subject to the whims of state legislatures, which the Court has already given free rein to politically gerrymander themselves into power forever.

“As if this were not enough, Justice Thomas’ concurrence goes even further. Not satisfied with simply upending four decades of legal precedent, the conservative majority sets its sights next on eliminating other Constitutional protections as well, namely contraception, same-sex relationships, and same-sex marriage.

“Here in Wisconsin, reproductive rights are now fully at risk. Two days ago, Wisconsin Republicans ignored Gov. Evers’ call for a special session to overturn our state’s wildly outdated laws that criminalize abortion which had long since been nullified by the Roe decision. Republicans could not be bothered to even debate much less take up a vote on this issue, and beginning today, Wisconsinites have no promises to a right to control their own reproductive decisions, even in cases of rape and incest.

“Today is a dark day for our nation, and in particular, for our state, which is suddenly thrust into the laws of 1849 against the will of our people. This flies in the face of the well-established freedoms of Wisconsinites, and against our state’s motto: Forward. We can and must protect the fundamental right of women to make intimate decisions and choose their own futures as the Constitution intended.”

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