Washington, DC — Wisconsin AG Josh Kaul joined MSNBC’s Morning Joe and CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper to discuss his lawsuit challenging the state’s 1849 abortion ban and the harmful impact the ban has had in the state since the law took effect. AG Kaul filed the lawsuit challenging the 174-year-old abortion law that took effect last year following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The lawsuit had a hearing yesterday in Dane County. If successful, the suit will help restore abortion access in Wisconsin.

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, AG Kaul discussed the ramifications doctors could face because of the 1849 law. AG Kaul said, “Doctors are facing potential felony prosecutions under this law if they perform abortions and a prosecutor decides that it doesn’t comply with the law. One of the people, one of the groups of people we’ve heard a lot from our doctors who talk about how this is interfering with their ability to provide care to their patients. They talk about how if they need to intervene, they often have to go talk to a lawyer before they can provide the medical procedure that’s needed for their patients. That’s not the kind of medicine we should be practicing. And again, it’s not safe for women in Wisconsin.”

As AG Kaul shared with Tapper on the lawsuit, “When Roe was overturned in Wisconsin, abortion became generally unavailable for women in the state, with very narrow exceptions. And we are working to restore access to safe and legal abortion. In our suit, we’ve argued, among other things, that there were a series of laws passed after Roe and some laws that directly conflict with the 1849 ban and that it can’t be both legal and illegal at the same time for providers to provide abortion care. Because of that conflict, we’ve argued that the courts should find that the 1849 law is unenforceable and that the ban is not in effect in Wisconsin.”

Protecting and expanding abortion access was front and center of AG Kaul’s re-election campaign last cycle where he defeated his anti-abortion opponent. Democratic AGs have been leading the legal fight to protect and expand access to abortion and reproductive health care nationwide in the wake of the Dobbs decision.

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