Abortion a key issue in upcoming election

A former Planned Parenthood lawyer and an adoptive dad who previously served as a state attorney general are competing for a 10-year term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in a race with high stakes for the abortion debate.

On April 1, Wisconsinites will choose which of the candidates will fill the seat that liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley—who has served on the court since 1995—will leave open when she retires from the bench in July. The outcome will determine whether a majority of liberal justices or a majority of conservatives will take up a Planned Parenthood lawsuit that asks the court to find a right to abortion in the state constitution.

State and national pro-life groups are eyeing the race as crucial for the future of pro-life laws in the state. They say the outcome will come down to voter turnout, and the liberal candidate is banking on the abortion issue driving her supporters to the polls.

“This election is so important and essential for people that are pro-life,” said Daniel Degner, president of the Christian advocacy group Wisconsin Family Council. He noted that if conservative candidate Brad Schimel loses to the liberal, Susan Crawford, this year, conservatives will have to win both conservative seats up for grabs in 2026 and 2027 and flip a liberal seat in 2028 in order to take the majority.

Polling from Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce released Wednesday shows Crawford and Schimel are in a dead heat, each with 47% support among Wisconsin voters.

Conservatives lost a 15-year majority on the court in 2023 when Justice Janet Protasiewicz won the fourth liberal seat on the seven-member bench after campaigning openly on a pro-abortion stance. “My value is that women should be able to make their reproductive rights decisions themselves,” she said in a public forum during the campaign. Such political posturing was unusual for a judicial race. But her decisive victory suggested that pro-abortion angst fueled voter turnout in her favor.

During the 2023 race, a long-dormant state pro-life law was in effect. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and its declared federal right to abortion in June 2022, the Wisconsin law and similar state laws across the country became enforceable again. The Wisconsin legislature passed its law in 1849 with language protecting all babies from abortion except when the mother’s life was at risk. It was still in effect at the time of the April 2023 election and during Protasiewicz’s swearing-in that August. But it was also facing a legal challenge during that time.

The month after Protasiewicz joined the state’s high court, a county judge ruled that the 1849 law only prohibits feticide, or intentionally attacking a pregnant woman to kill the unborn baby against the mother’s will. Abortion facilities resumed abortions. More than a year later, in November 2024, the case arrived at the state Supreme Court for oral arguments. The court has yet to issue a ruling.

In a separate case, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin has asked the state Supreme Court to declare that the state constitution guarantees a right to abortion. The Supreme Court has agreed to take up the case but has not yet heard oral arguments.

“It is very likely that if the liberal Susan Crawford wins this race, then that case will be heard,” said Degner. “And it is very likely that the liberal state Supreme Court would find a right to abortion in the state constitution under our promise for our protections for life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.”

Crawford’s campaign, meanwhile, is leveraging fears about the possibility of the pro-life law becoming enforceable again. The Dane County Circuit judge openly shares on her campaign website and in ads that she previously represented Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin as a private practice attorney “to defend access to reproductive health care.” In a debate last week with her opponent Schimel, Crawford declined to weigh in on the 1849 law but again mentioned her history with Planned Parenthood and said she wants “to make my own healthcare decisions, and I trust women to do so.”

Her ads claim that Schimel wants to bring back the pro-life law and ban abortion in the state, citing statements he’s made during events with supporters calling the law “valid” and stating that “there is not a constitutional right to abortion in our state constitution.”

In the debate, Schimel defended his comments, clarifying that both chambers of the legislature passed the law and the governor signed it, making it valid. But he agreed that the 1849 abortion law does not necessarily reflect the will of the people today.

Schimel, a Waukesha County Circuit judge, served as Wisconsin Attorney General from 2015 to 2019. During that time, he defended pro-life state laws against attacks from Planned Parenthood, including an ultimately successful effort to block enforcement of a law requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. In 2012, he signed onto a Wisconsin Right to Life white paper supporting a proposed law to protect all babies from abortion in the state.

His campaign ads do not speak directly to his stance on abortion, but on the campaign trail he has highlighted the adoptions of his two daughters, born to 18-year-old moms facing unplanned pregnancies. “The people of Wisconsin through referendum or their elected representatives should decide the question of abortion,” he says in one ad that features his daughters and their stories.

Degner with Wisconsin Family Council said he believes Schimel will abide by the proper role of the judiciary, which is to uphold the will of the people as communicated through the laws passed by their elected representatives or through referenda. “We want to have a justice who upholds the rule of law and the role of the courts to let the legislature and the governor make those decisions,” he said, contrasting that responsibility with Crawford’s agenda to expand abortion in the state.

During the debate, Schimel said that the politicization of the court with Protasiewicz’s 2023 election motivated him to run for a seat on the bench. “I got into this race to restore objectivity to this court,” he said.

Schimel questioned why the court has not ruled on the case of the 1849 abortion law. “I think they’re playing politics,” he said. “They’re waiting till after this election to keep the 1849 law a live issue.” But he predicted that the case will be resolved long before the swearing in of the new justice in August.

The public information office of the Wisconsin Court System confirmed to WORLD that the court would release decisions in cases it heard this term—including the abortion case in November—before the end of the term on June 30. The office clarified that there is no fixed deadline for any specific case and that the timing of a decision can vary depending on the complexity of the case. Even if the court could wait until August to release the decision regarding the 1849 abortion law, Schimel would still be unlikely to take part in the decision.

“It has been the practice of the Court that only justices who have heard the arguments and participated in the initial decision conference are involved in the final decision and with the written opinion that issues,” the office said.

Voters’ practically identical support numbers for each candidate have intensified get-out-the-vote efforts. “This is all a turnout game, with it being an April election,” said Kelsey Pritchard, state public affairs director with Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. The leading national pro-life organization has deployed canvassers in the state to knock on the doors of pro-life voters and Trump voters to remind them to vote. President Donald Trump narrowly flipped Wisconsin in the November presidential race, and poll-watchers say the results of this state Supreme Court race will indicate how voters view the Trump presidency.

Pritchard said SBA doesn’t generally get involved in state Supreme Court races, but it has made exceptions for Wisconsin in 2023 and again this year due to the high stakes for the future of the state’s pro-life laws. In 2023, SBA poured six figures into the primary and $2 million into the general election. This year, canvassers are targeting 125,000 voters in the Milwaukee area.

“If pro-life voters, conservatives, Christian, Catholic voters show up and don’t stay home like they did two years ago, and they show up and vote for Brad Schimel, we’ll defeat Susan Crawford and her extreme abortion agenda,” said Pritchard.

This election, she said, is “going to determine whether people live or die.”