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Yes.

The Wisconsin law prohibiting nearly all abortions states:

“Any person, other than the mother, who intentionally destroys the life of an unborn child is guilty of a Class H felony.”

The prohibition was signed by Gov. Nelson Dewey on March 31, 1849.

The law provides an exception for an abortion “necessary to save the life of the mother.” It applies to a child who has “quickened,” or whose movements are perceptible to the parent.

Wisconsin’s prohibition was made unenforceable by Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision establishing a national right to an abortion.

On June 24, 2022, the high court overturned Roe. Wisconsin abortion providers stopped offering abortions while a challenge to the 1849 law is pending.

On March 21, 2023, Gov. Tony Evers and fellow Democrats announced reintroduction of a bill to repeal the 1849 law — a measure Republicans refused to consider in 2022.

See a full discussion of this at Wisconsin Watch

This Fact Brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

Wisconsin State Legislature Wisconsin Legislature: 940.04

Wisconsin State Legislature A Brief History of Abortion Laws in Wisconsin

State of Wisconsin LRB-0692/1

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Tom Kertscher joined Wisconsin Watch as a full-time Milwaukee-based reporter in October 2024 after starting as a freelance Fact Briefs reporter in January 2023. In addition to contributing to Wisconsin Watch’s collaboration with The Gigafact Project to combat online misinformation, he reports on Wisconsin policy, labor, energy and the rapid expansion of data centers across the state. Kertscher is a former longtime reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a contributing writer for Milwaukee Magazine and the author of two sports books, on Al McGuire and Brett Favre.