MADISON, Wis. – In case you missed it, The New York Times’ Reid Epstein shines a light on the high-stakes race for Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, where abortion rights hang in the balance. The race between Judge Susan Crawford and Brad Schimel is already proving to be one of the most important and contested races of 2025.

Read below for key excerpts:

New York Times: One of 2025’s Biggest Battles Over Abortion Rights Has Already Begun

“The election will be the first test of Democratic and Republican enthusiasm in the new Trump era, and it will unfold in the state where the new president won his narrowest margin of victory. With few marquee contests in 2025 — and no other statewide races until November — Wisconsin’s court race stands out as potentially the biggest, highest-stakes election in the year after Mr. Trump’s return to power.

[…]

The race, like many others in Wisconsin, is likely to be dominated by abortion rights.

As attorney general, Judge Schimel helped map out a strategy to restrict abortion rights. And last summer, in the early stages of his campaign for the court, he told supporters he backed the state’s 1849 law banning abortion, which became valid when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. The old law was put on hold in December 2023 and is likely to come before the state high court later this year.

“They’ve got several issues in front of them,” he told a crowd in Adams County, according to audio of the meeting shared with The New York Times. “One is the 1849 ban on abortions, which, by the way — what is flawed about that law?”

At another stop, in Chilton, Wis., Judge Schimel declared: “There is not a constitutional right to abortion in our State Constitution. That will be a sham if they find that.”

He declined to be interviewed, but his spokesman, Jacob Fischer, said that Judge Schimel would “not prejudge any case” and would “enforce and respect the will of the voters.”

In an interview, Judge Crawford declined to address the 1849 law or the challenge to collective bargaining by public employees. But she did say that the state government should not be in the business of regulating abortions.

“I believe as a woman that I should be the one to make decisions about my own body and my health care, together with my doctors,” she said. “I trust other women to make those same decisions.”

Judge Crawford said she had not thought about whether the state’s congressional lines were fair. Judge Schimel, during his term as attorney general, defended previous Republican-drawn maps that gave the G.O.P. an advantage in both the State Legislature and Congress.”