State Senator André Jacque (R-De Pere) and State Representative Elijah Behnke (R-Oconto) have introduced companion legislation, Senate Bill (SB) 300 and Assembly Bill (AB) 247 respectively, in the Wisconsin Legislature. Together these bills, entitled the Taxpayer Abortion Subsidy Prevention Act, would prohibit the use of public employees and public property for activities relating to abortion. Should legal abortion ever return to Wisconsin, either by judicial ruling or statutory enactment, it is critical that we have laws on the books that shield taxpayers from subsidizing the killing of their preborn brothers and sisters with their state tax dollars.

Strongly supported by Pro-Life Wisconsin, SB 300/AB 247 would do the following: 1) prohibit persons employed by the state, a state agency, or a local governmental unit from providing abortion services, promoting or encouraging abortion services, making abortion referrals, or training others or receiving training in performing abortions while acting within the scope of their public employment, whether located within or without the state; and 2) prohibit the use of public property to provide abortion services, promote or encourage abortion services, make abortion referrals, or train individuals in performing abortions, whether located within or without the state.

The Taxpayer Abortion Subsidy Prevention Act would outlaw attempts by University of Wisconsin (UW) employees to plan and erect abortion centers on public property, as occurred with the Madison Surgery Center in 2009 prior to the plan’s abandonment. It would also outlaw public funding of UW medical resident abortion training, and UW faculty performance of abortions at the Madison Planned Parenthood abortion facility, a grisly contractual arrangement that stained the reputation of Wisconsin’s public university system and its flagship hospital. Ob/Gyn medical residents can be effectively trained in addressing the complications of abortion without actually performing abortions.

Importantly, the bills’ prohibitions do not apply to a physician who performs a medical intervention designed or intended to prevent the death of a pregnant woman (i.e.; a medical emergency early induction or C-section and the removal of a miscarriage or an ectopic pregnancy) if the physician makes all reasonable medical efforts under the circumstances to preserve both the life of the woman and the life of the unborn child in a manner consistent with conventional medical practice.

Such a medical intervention is not a legal abortion because it does not involve: 1) intent to terminate the pregnancy; and 2) intent other than to increase the probability of a live birth, as defined in Wisconsin’s current law abortion statute, s.253.10(2)(a), included in the legislation. Therefore, any medical treatment provided to a pregnant woman by a physician that results in the unintentional injury or death of her unborn child is not a violation of the bills’ prohibitions. Abortion, statutorily defined as the intentional killing of a preborn child, is never medically necessary to save the life or improve the health of the mother.

Abortion is not health care. And in poll after poll, Americans overwhelmingly say they oppose taxpayer-funded abortion. A Knights of Columbus/Marist Poll released on January 18, 2023, showed 78% of respondents opposing the use of tax dollars to pay for abortions overseas and 60% opposing the use of tax dollars to fund abortions in the United States. The proposed Taxpayer Abortion Subsidy Prevention Act respects the consciences of Wisconsin taxpayers who oppose the use of public funds to subsidize abortion directly or indirectly. Pro-Life Wisconsin will fight for this legislation every legislative session until it becomes law.