Bill Requiring Minors to Get Abortion Consent Advances

The Wisconsin Assembly on Wednesday approved a parental consent bill for minors obtaining abortions, a day after it defeated an attempt to repeal a dormant law that penalizes doctors who perform abortions.

Abortion foes said the two votes were overwhelming victories for their national movement, but abortion rights advocates, while conceding defeat, predicted that the actions would help them unseat lawmakers in fall elections.

“We will remember in November,” Denise Matyka, a past president of the Wisconsin National Organization for Women, said at a rally outside the Capitol after the consent bill was approved. “We will show the politicians that a vote against reproductive choice is a vote against the will of the people.”

The consent bill, which requires girls under age 18 to get the permission of at least one parent or a judge before having an abortion, now advances to the Senate where lawmakers warned it would likely be stalled in committee.

“We will not move too hastily on this matter,” Senate President Fred Risser said Wednesday, noting that the nine-week legislative session ends on March 23.

The Assembly voted 57 to 39 on Tuesday against repealing a dormant state law that provides criminal penalties for performing abortions. The law was rendered unenforceable by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling that legalized abortion.

Abortion opponents said they want to keep the law on the books in hope that the Roe vs. Wade decision will be overturned.