Scott Walker is doing his damnedest these days to get some attention and leverage in the Republican presidential primary. If he's not
wanting to bomb Iran he's conducting a one-man War on Women from the governor's chair,
signing an unconstitutional abortion ban.
Wisconsin is now the 15th state to ban abortions at 20 weeks or earlier, which challenges a standard set by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that says fetuses are generally considered "viable," or able to live outside of the womb, between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy.
“I think most people in this state understand that when an unborn child can feel pain, that more than ever is an appropriate time to protect the unborn child," Walker said at the bill signing at Fox Valley Technical College in Oshkosh, arguing a fetus can feel pain after five months.
Medical science—and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Journal of the American Medical Association—does not agree with Walker and his pro-forced birth friends on that. All available research puts the point at which a fetus might feel pain at 27 weeks. But when has science ever mattered?
Nor does established law matter, apparently. Twenty-week bans have been struck down in Arizona in 2013 and in Idaho in May of this year, both cases heard by the 9th District. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of the Arizona case in 2014, meaning a 20-week ban is unconstitutional. Don't expect Walker to be concerned about the consequences of signing this bill, though, including what's likely to be an expensive lawsuit for his state. He's got a presidential primary to think about, and Republican primary voters are who he signed this law for.