Planned Parenthood challenges Wisconsin laws in bid to establish abortion as a right

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin filed a lawsuit Sept. 10 seeking to overturn two state restrictions on abortion and establish abortion as a right under the Wisconsin Constitution.

The lawsuit challenges a Wisconsin law making it a Class I felony for anyone other than a physician to perform an abortion and a requirement that women generally wait at least 24 hours after an in-person consultation before obtaining an abortion. 

In a Sept. 10 press release, Planned Parenthood argued that the Wisconsin Constitution protects the freedom to end an unborn child’s life through abortion, citing the document’s promise of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Tanya Atkinson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, said the lawsuit seeks to restore what she called the freedom to obtain an abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

“The generation before us fought for it, we knew it, and the generations that follow deserve the freedom to make these decisions for themselves,” Atkinson said in a video announcing the lawsuit.

Atkinson criticized the laws as politically imposed barriers to abortion.

“These laws don’t make patient care better. They simply make abortion harder to access,” she said. “And politicians should not get to put barriers between a patient and their health care provider.”

The lawsuit comes amid Wisconsin’s approaching Nov. 3 gubernatorial election, with the state’s abortion laws among the issues at stake.

Democratic nominee David Crowley applauded Planned Parenthood’s effort to overturn the physician-only requirement and 24-hour waiting period in a Sept. 10 campaign statement published by WisPolitics.

“Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin’s landmark lawsuit is a reminder that Wisconsin must elect a governor who will protect reproductive rights and keep politicians out of private medical decisions,” Crowley said.

Crowley has been endorsed by Reproductive Freedom for All, an organization that advocates for abortion access.

Republican nominee U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany supported the state’s abortion restrictions, saying he would “uphold Wisconsin’s current laws” if elected, according to the Wisconsin Examiner. The pro-life organization SBA Pro-Life America gave Tiffany an A+ on its 2025–2026 congressional scorecard, citing his votes to protect unborn life and oppose taxpayer funding of abortion.

Planned Parenthood previously asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2024 to recognize abortion as a right under the state Constitution. The court dismissed the case after ruling separately that subsequent abortion laws had replaced the state’s 1849 pro-life law, as Zeale News previously reported.

“None of our courts have decided whether or not the Wisconsin Constitution, in fact, protects this fundamental freedom,” Atkinson said, according to the Wisconsin Examiner. “We believe it does.”