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Friday, Jan. 10, 2025

Did Wisconsin taxpayers pay $1.6 million over an abortion restriction law that was ruled unconstitutional?

Tom Kertscher / Wisconsin Watch, Wisconsin Watch

yes

Wisconsin taxpayers paid $1.6 million to Planned Parenthood and others who sued over a 2013 state law that was ruled an unconstitutional restriction on abortion access.

In a new attack, the Wisconsin Democratic Party blamed conservative Brad Schimel for the costs, but he didn’t become state attorney general until 2015

Schimel faces liberal Susan Crawford in the April 1 state Supreme Court election.

The law would have required doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of where an abortion was done. 

After Planned Parenthood sued, federal judge William Conley in Madison temporarily blocked the law, then in 2015 ruled it unconstitutional.

Schimel appealed, arguing the restriction was reasonable. A three-judge federal appeals court in Chicago upheld Conley. Schimel asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case, but it refused.

Conley ordered the $1.6 million payment.

Federal law enables plaintiffs to sue for legal fees in successful civil rights cases.

See a full discussion of this at Wisconsin Watch

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