On Thursday, the Wisconsin State Assembly passed a bill that would put a 14-week abortion ban on April’s election ballot, following a ridiculous debate in which Republican state Rep. Joel Kitchens argued that as a farm animal vet, he knew more about “mammalian fetal development better than probably anyone here”—apparently even more than the women in the room who’d actually given birth.
This wasn’t about health care, the cow doctor asserted. “If you believe that a fetus is a human life, then abortion is not health care. … And in my mind there's absolutely no question that's a life, and I think the science backs me up on that.”
One woman in the room, Democratic state Rep. Deb Andraca, was having none of that. “You could say this is a matter of local control. I don’t know how you get more local than a uterus. … You may not like the fact that all of us, male or female, vet or doctor, whatever you are or wherever you pray, should be able to make that decision for yourself.”
Kitchens didn’t do the forced-birth cause any favors with his viral moment in the sun. The bill already faced enough opposition that it had to be rewritten to include exceptions for rape and incest, and to require doctors “make reasonable efforts” to preserve the life of the fetus during medical emergencies.
The bill is unlikely to come before voters. The Republican-led state Senate doesn’t seem overly keen on taking up the bill. And even if it passes the Senate, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers will veto it. He made that abundantly clear in his State of the State address this week. “I want to speak directly to women in Wisconsin tonight: I will veto any bill that takes away your reproductive freedom or makes reproductive healthcare any less accessible in Wisconsin than it is today. Period.”
Kitchens just made it all that much easier for Evers by making himself the misogynistic face of the bill and saying the quiet part out loud: As far as the forced-birth movement is concerned, women are basically cattle.
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We're going deep inside last year's momentous progressive victory in the battle for control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court on this week's episode of "The Downballot," where we're joined by Alejandro Verdin, who managed Judge Janet Protasiewicz's triumphant campaign. Verdin explains how he assembled a team that took the little-known Protasiewicz from third place in the polls to a runaway first-place finish in the primary and then on to a landslide win in the general election.
