Wisconsin Supreme Court Oversteps: Four Justices Strike Down 175-Year-Old Pro-Life Law

October 2025 – Wisconsin — On July 2, 2025, in a 4–3 decision in Kaul v. Urmanski, the Wisconsin Supreme Court declared that the state’s 1849 abortion law (Wis. Stat. § 940.04) had been “impliedly repealed” by later statutes.

This was not a ruling of unconstitutionality. Instead, the majority claimed the Legislature had accidentally repealed the law — one that protected life for more than 170 years.

This ruling is a direct assault on the Wisconsin Constitution, which vests lawmaking authority in the Legislature, not the courts. It also defies Wisconsin’s long-standing recognition that life begins at conception, as stated in Wis. Stat. § 940.04(6).

The court’s liberal majority ignored this truth and rewrote the law to fit their political agenda, citing temporary statutes passed in response to Roe v. Wade, were the laws that the court stated “impliedly replaced” the 1849 ban.

Justice Brian Hagedorn wrote: “The Wisconsin Constitution vests the lawmaking power of the people in the state legislature. But today, the Wisconsin Supreme Court effectively deletes a law from the books, taking this power unto itself… Don’t be fooled. This is pure policymaking, driven by antagonism toward a law the majority does not like. The end result is that the policies enacted by the people’s representatives are gone—scratched out with a giant judicial eraser.” He concluded: “Today, the court aggrandizes power to itself, rewrites the law in its own image, and undermines our constitutional order. I dissent.”

Justice Annette Ziegler began her dissent with: “The majority opinion is a jaw-dropping exercise of judicial will, placing personal preference over the constitutional roles of the three branches of our state government and upending a duly enacted law. In this dangerous departure from our constitutional design, four members of the court make up and apply their own version of implied repeal.”

Justice Rebecca Bradley warned: “The majority erased a law it does not like, making four lawyers sitting on the state’s highest court more powerful than the People’s representatives in the legislature… The majority not only does violence to a single statute; it defies the People’s sovereignty.”

She ended with a stark warning to the people of Wisconsin: “When what is supposed to be the weakest branch of government erases the constitutional lines… the court arrogates king-like power unto itself, ‘laying hold of popular disquietudes’ to ultimately ‘sweep away the liberties of the [people] like a deluge.’ Ultimately, it is up to the people to state their views on these issues, as all others, and not sit by while four lawyers impose their own.”

Because § 940.04(6) recognizes the unborn as human beings, this decision has effectively stripped unborn children of their legal and constitutional protection. These human lives were denied due process and representation under both the Wisconsin and United States Constitutions. This was not justice — it was judicial activism. The court’s majority has seized the authority of the Legislature and undermined the rule of law in our state.

Every Wisconsinite who believes in life, liberty, and constitutional government should be alarmed. The dissenting justices made it clear: this is an unconstitutional power grab.

Now it is up to We the People to act! Tell your representative to TAKE BACK THEIR POWER NOW!

📞 Contact your state legislators today: https://legis.wisconsin.gov

In God We Trust,

WRA Executive Board ~ WRA an Alliance for Life, Liberty & Justice LLC