Washington, D.C. — In an interview with PBS Wisconsin, Wisconsin GOP AG candidate Eric Toney, who is vying to be the state’s next top law enforcement officer, said that district attorneys should be able to cross county lines “to be able to investigate and enforce that abortion ban in Wisconsin.” The ban he’s referring to is an 1849 law that bans nearly all abortions in the state.

As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, “Toney, who has been outspoken in his support for banning abortion in nearly all cases, said when a district attorney doesn’t enforce the state’s 1849 abortion ban, a different DA should be able to come into the county to do it.” 

Incumbent AG Josh Kaul on the other hand is in court trying to overturn the abortion ban, “which was put into place before women had the right to vote,” reports the Journal Sentinel. “Kaul has also said he would not enforce the law as attorney general.”

Abortion is a top issue for voters in Wisconsin. “The latest Marquette University Law School Poll found abortion policy is the fourth most important concern among voters, following inflation, public schools and gun violence. When asked if Wisconsin should allow a woman to obtain a legal abortion if she became pregnant as the result of rape or incest, 90% of respondents said yes.”

In an endorsement from Madison’s The Capital Times Editorial Board, they write, “As a former federal prosecutor, Kaul has since his election four years ago focused on making the Wisconsin Department of Justice a cutting-edge force for public safety, and a source of protection for consumers, workers, the environment and individual rights.”

“On 2022’s hottest legal issue — the question whether to defend abortion rights — Toney has taken an extreme anti-choice stand that would divert DOJ resources away from fighting crime, maintaining consumer protections and assuring that corporate polluters do not despoil our rivers and streams.”

The endorsement continues, “Since a judicial activist majority on the current Supreme Court upended the Roe decision in June, anti-abortion zealots in Wisconsin have demanded that the 1849 law be enforced — even in cases of rape and incest. Toney, who is campaigning with the support of those zealots, would make the Department of Justice their political plaything.”

AG Kaul is the clear choice for Wisconsinites.

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