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MEET BRAD SCHIMEL: Reintroducing the “Anti-Abortion Warrior” Who Called Wisconsin’s 1849 Criminal Abortion Ban “Valid”

Jan 16, 2025

MEET BRAD SCHIMEL: Reintroducing the “Anti-Abortion Warrior” Who Called Wisconsin’s 1849 Criminal Abortion Ban “Valid”

MADISON, Wis. — Try as he might to distract from his partisan past, noted anti-abortion warrior and far-right politician Brad Schimel is lugging around a long record opposing reproductive freedom as he campaigns to bring his extreme agenda to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

From his time as district attorney in Waukesha County through his days as Wisconsin’s Worst Attorney General, Brad Schimel tried every trick in the book to restrict access to abortion care, leaving no doubt how he would rule on cases involving reproductive freedom on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Here’s what you need to know about Brad Schimel’s lengthy record opposing reproductive freedom:

  • Before Roe v. Wade was overturned, Brad Schimel defended Wisconsin’s 1849 criminal abortion ban, signing onto a legal white paper agreeing that the ban—which does not include exceptions for rape or incest—should be enforced if Roe was struck down.
     
  • In 2024, Brad Schimel doubled down on this position, calling the near-total abortion ban “valid” and claiming there was nothing to make the law invalid.
     
  • As attorney general, Brad Schimel was in court suing to enforce new restrictions on abortion access in Wisconsin. Schimel wasted over $1 million in taxpayer funds on an extreme partisan lawsuit seeking to enforce one of Scott Walker’s anti-abortion bills.
     
  • Brad Schimel even said it was an “honor to have a case named Planned Parenthood v. Schimel.”
     
  • Beyond suing to restrict abortion in Wisconsin, Brad Schimel and his top aides worked with right-wing legal groups to end reproductive freedom nationwide. Schimel sought to keep it a secret that he and his staff attended a conference in 2017 hosted by a far-right hate group where the successful legal strategy to overturn Roe was hatched.

“From suing to make it more difficult for Wisconsinites to access abortion to drawing up plans to overturn Roe, Brad Schimel has more than earned the title of ‘anti-abortion warrior,’” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin Deputy Communications Director Haley McCoy. “At every stage of his career, Brad Schimel has fought to restrict access to abortion in Wisconsin—and there’s no doubt he would continue that trend on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.”

Learn more about Wisconsin’s Worst Attorney General at bradschimel.org.

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