A Christian anti-abortion organization in Wisconsin is taking aggressive action by challenging the medical licenses of physicians who perform abortions in the state, arguing that they are infringing the 1849 statute prohibiting abortion that is currently being debated in the courts.
"They're the medical professionals. They're not above the law," Dan Miller of Pro-Life Wisconsin told the Washington Examiner.
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Abortion has been illegal in Wisconsin following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022. At that time, the Antebellum statute 940.04 that prohibited the controversial procedure took immediate effect.
In July, however, Dane County Circuit Judge Diane Schlipper issued an interpretation that the 19th-century legislation only forbids a coerced abortion or attacking a woman in an attempt to kill her unborn child.
Although Schlipper's ruling opened the pathway for the state's abortion ban to proceed through the higher-level courts, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin resumed abortion services in both Milwaukee and Madison as of Sept. 18.
Miller said that this was a bold move for Planned Parenthood because the legal challenge against the abortion ban is still pending.
"They're performing illegal abortions, and I'm sure all these doctors are very well meaning, but they've been misinformed," Miller said. "They got bad advice."
Miller told the Washington Examiner that he contacted the Milwaukee police department on Sept. 18 in an attempt to encourage law enforcement to enforce the anti-abortion statute despite Schlipper's ruling. According to Miller, he was eventually "hung up on" by the chief of police after also being rebuffed by the Dane County Sheriff's Office.
After exploring other legal avenues of redress to stop abortions in the state, Miller got the idea to contact the state medical licensing board. "If there are any complaints lodged against [physicians], they have to remedy the complaint somehow," Miller said.
Planned Parenthood Wisconsin did not respond to the Washington Examiner's requests for comment.
Pro-Life Wisconsin filed a complaint against the statewide organization as well as the medical director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, Kathy King, and Green Bay-area OB-GYN Kristin Lyerly.
Lyerly is a prominent abortion rights activist in the region and ran for the Wisconsin State Assembly in 2020, losing to incumbent John Macco. There was speculation in May that Lyerly would run in the 2024 election against U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI).
Miller said his chief motive for filing the complaints against abortion providers, however, is that it will bring greater scrutiny from malpractice insurance companies that provide coverage for Planned Parenthood.
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"If I do perform an illegal act in my house and my house burns down as a result of it, the insurance company is not going to pay the fire claim because the fire resulted from the illegal act," Miller said.
"It's a sad, sad day when an organization like Planned Parenthood has no other outlet but to break the law," Miller said.