Crowley calls for constitutional amendment on abortion rights

Democratic candidate David Crowley committed to advocate for a constitutional amendment that would allow voters to decide whether access to abortion and reproductive healthcare is a right protected by the state constitution. 

At an event in Milwaukee on Tuesday, Crowley said that it is good that the state Supreme Court ruled that an 1849 law that was interpreted as a nearly absolute ban on abortion is unenforceable. But, he said, “other restrictions remain, and future legislatures can change that law.” He appeared at the event with U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and his runningmate, lieutenant governor candidate Sarah Godlewski. 

For a proposed constitutional amendment to go before voters, the Wisconsin Legislature has to pass the proposal in two consecutive sessions. The governor does not have a role in signing off on the proposals. 

“Right now, women’s rights are only safe as the next election, and I don’t think Wisconsin’s women should have to hold their breath every four years,” Crowley said. “This amendment will establish a fundamental right to make and carry out decisions about reproductive health, including contraception, fertility treatment, pregnancy, miscarriage care and abortion. It will keep medical judgments about viability and necessary care with treating healthcare professionals, and it will prevent the state from penalizing anyone who is seeking healthcare or helping another person seek the care that they need.”

During the Milwaukee event, Crowley criticized Republican candidate Tom Tiffany as being “an anti-abortion extremist who backed their plan to ban abortion nationwide at zero weeks with no exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of a mother.”

Tiffany previously supported legislation to restrict abortion access during his time in the state Legislature and in Congress. He voted in 2015, when he was a state senator, for the state’s ban on abortion after 20 weeks. In Congress, he has cosponsored legislation that would have made it a crime for doctors to perform abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy.

Tiffany said during a campaign event on Tuesday that he would uphold the state’s current 20-week ban. 

“David Crowley wants unlimited abortion all the way up to nine months, and I just don’t think that’s where most Wisconsinites are,” Tiffany said.

A recent lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin seeks to repeal several laws in Wisconsin that restrict abortion, arguing that they are unconstitutional because of a constitutional right to abortion. There is no language in the state constitution that directly addresses abortion, but the lawsuit argues the passage that guarantees that “all people are born equally free and independent and possess inherent rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” covers a right to abortion.