Wisconsin women say federal abortion access is a priority, even with restrictions, as issue drives voters to the polls
WATERTOWN, Wis. — Wisconsin women tell The Post that codifying Roe into federal law is a priority for them in this election, even if it involves some restrictions, mirroring polling trends in the state.
Kamala Harris supporters who spoke with The Post listed reproductive rights as a top issue in the election, but were split on whether a federal abortion access law should include any restrictions. Meanwhile, Donald Trump supporters and pro-life voters in the state thought the issue should remain in states’ hands.
Immediately after Roe v. Wade was overturned, Wisconsin reverted to an 1849 law governing abortion, which effectively banned the practice. After 15 months the law was ruled unenforceable, and abortion services resumed under existing restrictions, including an approximately 20-week ban.
Peg Vanbrice, 71, a Green Bay retiree and Harris supporter, is opposed to restrictions of any kind. “You have to leave it up to the person,” Vanbrice told The Post outside Harris’ rally in Green Bay this month. “To take that decision away is wrong.”
Heather Strayer, 53, is a school social worker in Green Bay. She told The Post she’s uncomfortable with a ban after a certain gestational age. “I wish we could let a woman and her doctor make the choice. I don’t know if I agree with a number [of weeks].”
Outside the Harris town hall with Liz Cheney in red-leaning Waukesha County, Kelly Harrigan, 57, a software company project manager told The Post she’s comfortable with putting state provisions on a federal abortion access law — as long as it ultimately honors a woman’s right to choose.
Rebecca Sheperd, 53, said her top concern in this election is reproductive health.
“What I want for my daughters is the ability to make decisions about healthcare without government restricting her or her healthcare providers,” she told The Post.
Sheperd, who lives in the Brookfield area and works in sales, said she hadn’t considered how she feels about restrictions after viability but the alternative — a Trump presidency — is unacceptable, “even if there are certain restrictions or challenges to restore Roe v. Wade.”
Waiting in line for the Harris event alongside her was Heather Gergen, 53, a marketing photographer who agreed: “It’s important for women to have agency over their own bodies in any way.”
Laura Palus, 56, runs a nonprofit that supports pregnant women in need. Speaking to The Post outside Trump’s school choice event in Milwaukee earlier this month, Palus said Trump was a “great pro-life president,” and she was pleased with his first term.
“It’s a different world right now and I believe abortion does need to go back to the states,” Palus said. She thinks it’s now “up to the people to do the work” to convince people that “a child in the womb a day old is a person.”
Retired nurse Sandy Hansen-Harsh of Waukesha County told The Post at a Republican watch party for the vice presidential debate that she believes in a woman’s right to choose, but that states should have the “prerogative to enforce parameters for abortion.”
Pam Rucinski, who said she’s been very involved in the pro-life movement, thought leaving the issue with the states was a rational, reasonable proposal, but the anger aimed at the pro-life movement post-Roe left her stunned.
“Even Ruth Bader Ginsberg said that Roe was a weak decision,” Rucinski said, presumably referring to the late justice’s perspicacious warnings about the landmark decision’s susceptibility.
The pro-life advocate is in favor of restrictions, particularly those that prohibit late-term abortions, and favors giving women more information about their options.
“You can’t unsee the mom and for us, you can’t unsee the baby,” she said.
Rucinski says the path forward for pro-lifers is helping all women, including those who end their pregnancies.
“It has always been about helping women right from the start.”
In the latest survey from Marquette Law School, 63% of registered voters in Wisconsin said they thought abortion should be legal in all or most cases. The percentage of voters who think abortion should be legal in all cases is down from the last few polls to 27% from 34% in September, the lowest since the June 2022.
Just over one-third of registered Wisconsin voters think abortion should be illegal in most or all cases.
Harris has made abortion access a top campaign issue, as Trump consistently outperforms her on economic and immigration issues.
She has suggested eliminating the filibuster for Roe to push a federal abortion access law through congress with just 51 votes, and proclaimed she wouldn’t make concessions on abortion rights to reach a compromise with a Republican-controlled Congress if elected president.
Trump, who proudly boasts of appointing several of the justices who make up the 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade, has said he would veto a national abortion ban. Harris has repeatedly misstated the former president’s position on abortion, and continues to claim he wants to ban abortion nationwide.
