Democratic attorney general Josh Kaul and a group of Wisconsin doctors are asking a Dane County judge for a final ruling that an 1849 Wisconsin law doesn’t apply to abortion, but refers to feticide instead. They also sought to keep alive their arguments that the 1849 law isn’t enforceable as applied to abortion because subsequent statutes supersede it. Judge Diane Schlipper last month rejected a motion to dismiss the suit Kaul filed challenging the 1849 law. Kaul asked Schlipper yesterday to issue a final ruling without another hearing. The physicians, meanwhile, asked for a judgment and permanent injunction barring enforcement of the 1849 law to ensure they couldn’t be prosecuted for performing an abortion. The case is expected to eventually land before the state Supreme Court, which is now controlled 4-3 by liberals.
