![]() Protasiewicz’s win symbolizes a larger problem for local- and state-elected officials brought on by the U.S. Typically judicial candidates keep their issue-oriented views to themselves to avoid the appearance of bias. Protasiewicz signaled repeatedly during her campaign that she supports abortion rights, an unprecedented approach in a judicial race. That plays to Kaul’s advantage because liberal-leaning justices will hold a 4-3 majority on the court after Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz is sworn in this August. The case carries so much weight that no matter what happens in Schlipper’s courtroom or at the appellate level it will almost certainly end at the state Supreme Court. The judge wasn’t expected to immediately rule Thursday, but she could lay down a timeline for her decision. State laws don’t lose their effect through disuse, Urmanski said. Urmanski also rebuts Kaul’s argument that the ban is unenforceable because it’s so old. Urmanski argues that Kaul lacks standing to sue because the abortion ban doesn’t hurt him. ![]() Republican Joel Urmanski, Sheboygan County’s district attorney who has vowed to prosecute anyone violating the abortion ban, has asked the court to dismiss the case. ![]() Thursday’s hearing before Circuit Judge Diane Schlipper was expected to focus on a motion by one of the prosecutors named. Kaul initially sued Republican legislators but later dropped them from the case and named three district attorneys as defendants, seeking to prohibit them from enforcing the ban. The 1985 legislation permits terminating pregnancies up until a fetus can survive outside the womb, while the older law outlawed abortion except to save the mother’s life. Kaul argues that the 1849 law is so old it was essentially adopted without the people’s consent or alternately, that narrower restrictions on abortion enacted in Wisconsin in 1985 supersede the older statute. State Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, filed the lawsuit in Dane County circuit court last June seeking to repeal the ban. (AP) - A Wisconsin judge was set to hear arguments Thursday in a lawsuit challenging the state’s 174-year-old abortion ban, a statute held in abeyance for nearly five decades until the U.S.
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