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| photo credit: American Life League / Flickr |
The laws in question also require a patient seeking an abortion to see a doctor on two separate appointments before having an abortion procedure, and that patients receive abortion pill prescriptions directly from a doctor.
By having these laws overturned, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin would be able to have midwives and nurses give prescriptions and commit abortions without a doctor being present.
Tanya Atkinson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, told Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR), “Planned Parenthood Wisconsin is challenging these restrictions because they do interfere with a person’s ability to make their own health care decisions and make it more difficult to access the care they need.”
She also told WPR that Planned Parenthood would offer abortions at more of its facilities if the pro-life laws are overturned. Currently, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin only offers abortion at three of its 21 facilities in the state, and abortions are only completed by part-time physicians.
Julaine Appling, president of Wisconsin Family Action, argued that having these laws overturned would put women at risk. “We believe this is a dangerous road for the state to go down,” she said. “Medical abortion [the abortion pill] is not without risk. If Planned Parenthood prevails, and they open up all of their sites to do these, women will suffer from that, and certainly their unborn children will be killed because of the courts.”
