Attorney Luke Berg of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), one of two law firms involved in this effort, says Planned Parenthood, some doctors, and four women filed petition asking the state Supreme Court create a constitutional right to abortion "out of nothing."
"We moved to intervene in the case and opposed the court taking the original action in part because the claim that there is a constitutional right to abortion in Wisconsin is so patently meritless," Berg maintains.
On behalf of Wisconsin Right to Life, Wisconsin Family Action, and Pro-Life Wisconsin, WILL and the Thomas More Society have filed a response to Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul's (D) "bypass petition" seeking to create this constitutional right by adding a new claim to his lawsuit that was not previously raised.
In a related press release, WILL says the attorney general has decided to use his recent case against Wisconsin's statutory abortion laws as a vehicle to change the state constitution.
"If [the court] takes the case, it will schedule briefing and schedule an oral argument," Berg explains. "I think the earliest that there would be any court argument would be next fall sometime, just given how late it is in this term."
While this would not have a direct impact on other states, the WILL attorney says the decision could have relevance when other courts are analyzing their own state constitutions.
"I cannot speak to other state constitutions, but I can speak to Wisconsin's, and there's no provision whatsoever in the constitution that provides abortion," he reiterates. "If the framers had intended to create a constitutional right to abortion, you'd think they would have said so."
The 2022 Dobbs decision put the abortion issue back in the halls of state legislatures, and about half of the states have since outlawed abortion or restricted access. Democrats are making abortion a key issue this election year.
