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Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, vetoed five anti-abortion bills on Friday.
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The bills had been supported and passed by the Republican-led state legislature.
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The vetoes came just two days after the conservative US Supreme Court justices heard arguments in a case that could overturn Roe v. Wade.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers on Friday vetoed five separate pieces of anti-abortion legislation passed by the state’s GOP-led state legislature.
“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again today: as long as I’m governor, I will veto any legislation that turns back the clock on reproductive rights in this state—and that’s a promise,” Evers, a Democrat who has served as governor since 2019, said Friday in a tweet.
Republicans in the state legislature do not hold the votes to overturn Evers’ vetoes, according to a report from the Associated Press.
One of the bills, which Evers previously vetoed in 2019, would impose criminal penalties — up to six years in prison — should an abortion provider fail to provide critical medical care in the case an aborted fetus is born alive. This is extremely rare, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There were 143 of these cases nationwide between 2003 and 2014, according to the CDC, and doctors say the bill sets out to solve a problem that doesn’t exist, since they’re already ethically and legally required to care for any babies born under such circumstances, according to the AP.
Evers also rejected a bill that would require medical providers to provide information to parents of fetuses or embryos that test positive for a congenital condition, the AP reported. Another bill that Evers rejected would’ve prohibited a pregnant person from seeking an abortion on the basis of sex, race, or national origin.
Another vetoed bill would’ve reduced state funding to abortion providers by prohibiting the state from classifying them as a Medicaid provider, and Evers vetoed an additional bill that would’ve required an abortion provider tell a patient it was possible to reverse a medication-induced abortion after taking the first dose, according to the report.
According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, such claims are not supported by science and are “unethical.”
The numerous vetoes in Wisconsin came Friday, just two days after the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case that could overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that has safeguarded abortion access in the US for decades.
The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, focuses on a 2018 Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, Insider’s Oma Seddiq reported. The conservative justices on the court appeared open to throwing out Roe v. Wade during oral arguments Wednesday.
With a conservative majority on the court secured under former President Donald Trump, Republican-led state legislatures across the US this year targeted abortion access. An all-out ban on abortion after six weeks in Texas was allowed to take effect in September after the Supreme Court declined to stop it.
The Texas law incentivizes Texans to sue fellow other residents involved in abortion care performed after 6 weeks of pregnancy, and it does not include exceptions for rape or incest, as Insider previously reported. Other states, including Ohio, have proposed similar measures.
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