The law, which is currently being challenged in the courts, requires ultrasounds for women seeking an abortion and requires doctors who perform abortions to have admitting rights at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic. The law includes exceptions for cases where the mother’s life is threatened or in cases of rape and incest if the crime is reported, Taylor said.
However, she said only 19 percent of victims of sexual assault actually report the crime, and the law does not exempt cases in which complications occur in the pregnancy.
Pines, the attorney who secured a temporary restraining order and injunction on the law after its passage, said he sees the law as an attempt by “extremists” in the Legislature to restrict the reproductive rights of women. Specifically, he said the law would suppress the sexuality of poor women.
“This is about control over people you don’t like,” Pines said. “It’s about control over women.”
He said the history of the reproductive rights movement to empower women is significant in understanding the origins of the current controversy.
The issue has been contentious since Roe v. Wade, with the development of radical opposition to contraception and abortion, Pines said.
“Just because the law changed, people didn’t change,” he said. “People fundamentally shut up, but they don’t fundamentally change. Traditionally, the forces in our political culture have been liberal and progressive, but the popular culture has. Basically, the political culture can’t keep up.”
In addition to controversy surrounding reproductive rights, Pines said partisan problems exist with the current Legislature.
Both Taylor and Pines said extremists in the Legislature “took advantage” of their Republican majority by passing the law at the same time as the 2013-15 biennial budget.
“They pushed it through the Legislature with ‘flooding the zone’ tactics to obscure how bad the budget was,” Taylor said.
Jacob Riederer, spokesperson for the UW College Democrats, said in an email to The Badger Herald, state GOP legislators used the mandatory ultrasound bill solely to implement their right-wing social agenda.
Riederer said the bill both endangers the health of women and restricts their right to choose.
“This is just one of many attacks by Republicans on the health and well-being of women when you consider the 100,000 forced off of BadgerCare, including pregnant women,” he said.
In spite of its success in the Republican-dominated Legislature, Taylor said she strongly supports action against the law.
Pines is pursuing an ongoing lawsuit with Planned Parenthood against Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen. People will also need to speak up and elect officials “other than the extremists” currently in the Legislature in 2014, he added.
“Silence has never helped civil rights,” Taylor said.
Emails to Charlie Hoffman, chair of the UW College Republicans, were not returned.
