Wisconsin's Democratic governor vetoes 4 abortion bills passed by Republican-controlled legislature
Madison, Wis. — Wisconsin's Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has vetoed four abortion bills passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature. One bill Evers vetoed Friday would have imposed criminal penalties on doctors who fail to give medical care in the extremely rare circumstance where a baby is born alive following an abortion attempt.
Other vetoed bills would have cut off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood; prohibited abortions based on the fetus' race, sex or defects; and required providers to tell women seeking abortions using the drug mifepristone that the process may be reversed after the first dose — which the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says is "not supported by science."
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin lauded Evers' decision to veto the bills and said the claims made in the legislation and by its supporters were "inflammatory, offensive and blatantly false."
Breaking: @GovEvers vetos a package of anti-women's health bills aimed at misinforming the public about abortion care. These bills and their supporters are making claims that are inflammatory, offensive and blatantly false.
— Planned Parenthood (@PPAWI) June 21, 2019
Republicans had called on Evers to sign the bills, even though he ran as supporter of reproductive rights and had long promised to veto the measures.
Evers has also pushed back against comments President Trump made about abortion at a rally in the state. Speaking to a crowd in Green Bay in April, Mr. Trump claimed that doctors and mothers may "determine whether or not they will execute the baby" after a child is born.
"To say that doctors in the state of Wisconsin are executing babies is just a blasphemy," Evers said.