Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin News Wire
Tuesday, February 5, 2008 Edition


In this Issue:

  • PPAWI to Assembly Leadership: A Woman’s Health Matters!
  • PPAWI Kicks Off Program to Bring One Million Voters to Polls


PPAWI to Assembly Leadership: A Woman’s Health Matters!
With only days remaining in the general session floor period, and economic woes on the minds of most voters, the Assembly leadership has instead focused its attention on banning already banned abortion procedures. This after the Assembly leadership worked for months to eliminate prevention-based health care in the state budget, and then failed to block the advancement of the Compassionate Care for Rape Victims Bill (Assembly Bill 377/Senate Bill 129). And now in a renewed push to block birth control access, Republican leaders in the Senate and Assembly have introduced a bill (LRB 3620/1 and LRB 3898/1) to gut the family planning waiver program, which serves 55,000 women and would attract $459 million federal dollars in 2008-09.

Meanwhile, the Assembly leadership is promoting Assembly Bill 710, which would forbid doctors from choosing which abortion procedure they believe safest to use, with no exception for a woman’s health. But they’re allowing Wisconsin’s Criminal Abortion Statute to remain on the books, a law that’s so extreme, it imposes prison time on women who obtain an abortion, even those who are victims of sexual assault or who are experiencing serious health problems.  Under Wisconsin’s criminal abortion law, Wis. Stat. § 940.04, women can serve up to 3 ½ years in prison for intentionally terminating a pregnancy, and physicians who provide abortions can go to prison for up to 15 years. 

“The Assembly leadership’s misplaced priorities are clearly out of step with the values of the people of Wisconsin, 74 percent of whom agreed in a recent poll that medical decisions about abortion should be made by women, their families and their doctors, without interference from politicians,” said PPAWI Public Policy Analyst Nicole Safar.  

“If you are opposed to abortion in every circumstance, then you should be working to protect and enhance women’s ability to prevent unintended pregnancy and the incidence of abortion, rather than advancing policies that reduce women’s access to birth control and related health care information and services. We should not put women’s health needlessly at risk by jeopardizing their access to this critical health care,” said Safar.

Assembly Bill 710 At a Glance

  • In 2003, the United States Congress passed and President Bush signed the Federal Abortion Ban, a law banning certain second trimester abortion procedures.  Last spring, the U.S. Supreme Court said that the law was constitutional—overturning 30 plus years of precedent requiring abortion restrictions to include an exception protecting women’s health. This bill would be an exact copy.
  • The federal ban is already law in Wisconsin. This bill would accomplish two things—it would tell physicians that they cannot consider a patient’s health when making treatment decisions, and it would tell women in our state that their health doesn’t matter.
  • Assembly Bill 710 violates the Wisconsin Medical Code of Ethics, which directs physicians to consider a patient’s life and health of paramount importance. Any action that places a patient’s health in danger would violate the professional code.  Wis. Admin. Code MED 10.02(h).  
  • Assembly Bill 710 reiterates that Wisconsin politicians do not believe doctors should be using their medical judgment to decide what medical procedure is safest for each individual patient’s health.

View testimony from PPAWI Public Policy Director Chris Taylor. (Taylor’s testimony begins at 6:41:50)  

Related Links

Read more about the Women’s Health and Safety Act, which would repeal the Criminal Abortion Statute.

Read more about Compassionate Care for Rape Victims.

PPAWI Kicks Off Program to Bring One Million Voters to Polls
Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin is joining the Planned Parenthood Action Fund to bring one million voters to the polls on Election Day 2008.

Calling their program the “One Million Strong,” campaign, Planned Parenthood leaders outlined a grassroots effort that also seeks to elect a pro-choice president and win key elections up and down the ballot.

“To continue serving the thousands of Wisconsinites that come to our 30 health centers every year, we must ensure that we have elected officials who support, rather than attack, access to basic health care.  That’s why we’re going to bring one million voters who care about women’s health to the polls in 2008,” said PPAWI Public Policy Analyst Nicole Safar. “Women voters and young adults trust PPAWI for election information, and we will deliver.”

“Under President Bush, women have seen access to basic health care like birth control become increasingly unaffordable and inaccessible. They watched as the president appointed an anti-birth control hardliner to run the nation’s family planning program. And they’ve now seen the White House pour over $1.5 billion into ineffective and dangerous abstinence-until-marriage programs that do nothing to prevent unintended pregnancies,” said Cecile Richards, president of the national Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

Planned Parenthood health centers nationwide provide over 5 million women, men and teens each year with information and medical services, and operate in all 50 states. Nearly one in four women in America has visited a Planned Parenthood health center in her lifetime.

“Women and young people have proven to be decisive forces in the presidential contests so far, and health care remains a top domestic issue,” said pollster Geoff Garin. “Planned Parenthood has a unique ability to reach the voters that will decide this election and elect a pro-choice president.”


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