MILWAUKEE, Wis. – With reproductive rights on the line in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court case, Brad Schimel is running from his own extreme anti-abortion record on the debate stage. Throughout his career, Schimel has established a clear and dangerous record opposing reproductive freedom, from voicing support for Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban to using the Wisconsin Department of Justice to create the legal framework to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Make no mistake, if Brad Schimel makes it to our Supreme Court, Wisconsinites can be certain he will do everything in his power to uphold the 1849 law and ban abortion across our state.
Here’s what you need to know about Brad Schimel’s extreme anti-abortion record:
- In 2012, before Roe v. Wade was overturned, Brad Schimel defended Wisconsin’s 1849 criminal abortion ban, signing onto a legal white paper agreeing that the ban—which does not include exceptions for rape or incest—should be enforced if Roe was struck down.
- While campaigning for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Brad Schimel doubled down on this position, calling the near-total abortion ban “valid” and exclaiming “What’s flawed about the law?” He’s even gone so far as to state “There is no constitutional right to abortion in Wisconsin.”
- Just last summer at a closed-door event in Calumet County, Brad Schimel said he wanted to keep the 1849 abortion ban on the books before the fall of Roe just in case the court struck down reproductive freedom and the law could be enforced again.
- As Attorney General, Brad Schimel sued to enforce new restrictions on abortion access in Wisconsin, calling it an “honor to have a case named Planned Parenthood vs Schimel.” Judge Crawford represented Planned Parenthood in the suit—and Brad Schimel lost. He wasted over $1 million in taxpayer funds on an extreme partisan lawsuit seeking to enforce one of Scott Walker’s anti-aborton bills.
- Meanwhile, Schimel’s right-hand man and top aide at the Wisconsin Department of Justice played a key role in the successful effort to end reproductive freedom nationwide, even introducing the legal strategy that resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court striking down Roe.
- And as the cherry on top, Schimel’s extreme record has earned the support of Pro-Life Wisconsin, a far-right right group that wants to ban all abortions without exception, restrict access to birth control, ban IVF, and only endorses candidates who hold a “no-exceptions pro-life position.” The national group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America also announced it would be going all-out to elect Schimel to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. This extreme, far-right wing group wants to “end abortion” in the United States, has pushed to keep Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban in place, and supports a federal abortion ban.
