Pro-Life Wisconsin 2011-2012 Legislative Agenda

Protecting preborn children as "persons" in the Wisconsin Constitution

Since Pro-Life Wisconsin (PLW) was founded in 1992, we have steadily worked toward our ambitious goal of total legal protection for every preborn child in our state.  To that end, PLW has gathered over 10,000 signatures in a statewide petition drive building public support for a state constitutional amendment establishing legal personhood for our preborn brothers and sisters.  Granting personhood to the preborn child from conception would oblige the state to ban all abortions without exception.  It is the foremost duty of the state to protect its citizenry, especially those most vulnerable.  Wisconsinites, born and preborn, deserve total and permanent legal protection of their right to life - an inalienable right grounded in natural law.  Only by enshrining the right to life in our state constitution will preborn children be afforded full and lasting legal protection.  PLW will work to introduce a constitutional amendment granting legal personhood to preborn children from conception.

 Defunding Planned Parenthood and other organizations that perform or refer for abortion

As it confronts an over $3 billion structural deficit in the coming biennium, the state of Wisconsin can no longer afford the controversial business of "family planning."  Family planning funding is available on the federal level through Title X (Public Health Services Act), Title XIX (Medical Assistance) and Title V (Maternal & Child Health) programs.  The state provides matching funds for Title XIX and Title V programs.  In 2009, combined annual Wisconsin state and federal family planning expenditures surpassed $49 million (almost $12 million for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin).  "Confidential" family planning services include the provision of abortifacient hormonal contraceptives, such as the morning-after pill and the patch, to adults and minor children.  Family planning funds also free up resources within receiving organizations to engage in the abortion business.  Rather than throw money at organizations that perform or refer for abortion, these funds should be eliminated to help balance the state budget or, in the case of the Title V program, be redirected toward preventive and primary care services for children with special health care needs.  PLW will work to eliminate taxpayer funding of organizations that perform or refer for abortion.

Protecting the conscience rights of all health care providers, institutions, and payers

The last four years Wisconsin abortion advocates launched an all out assault on the conscience rights of hospitals, pharmacies, health insurers and individual health care providers.  Laws were enacted that 1) force all Wisconsin hospitals to provide the morning-after pill to alleged victims of sexual assault immediately upon their request, 2) force all Wisconsin pharmacies to dispense prescribed contraceptive drugs or devices "without delay," and 3) force Wisconsin private and public health insurers to cover contraceptive drugs and devices.  The abortion lobby understands that if they can force medical professionals to violate their consciences regarding contraceptives, they can extend that legal precedent to coerce medical students to participate in abortion training and coerce doctors to provide surgical abortions.  These onerous laws violate the federal constitutional guarantee of free exercise of religion and the state constitutional guarantee of liberty of conscience.  It is time the Wisconsin Legislature pass comprehensive conscience rights protections for all health care professionals, health care institutions, and health care payers.  PLW will work to pass the "Health Care Freedom of Conscience Act." 


Repealing the sexual education mandate

Last year Governor Doyle signed Assembly Bill 458 into law as 2009 Wisconsin Act 134.  The so-called "Healthy Youth Act" effectively prohibits local public school districts from adopting "abstinence-only" human growth and development programs - a freedom and flexibility they enjoyed under previous law.  Under the new law, if a school district chooses to adopt a human growth and development program it is forced to include in its curriculum instruction on the "health benefits, side effects, and proper use of contraceptives and barrier methods."  Government-funded birth control, whether provided directly or promoted educationally, encourages sexual promiscuity and with it a host of social pathologies including underage pregnancies, chemical and surgical abortions, and sexually transmitted diseases. Pro-Life Wisconsin opposes the sexualization of our children!  As parents and concerned citizens, we need to fight this assault on our youth. Chastity/abstinence is the only message that will protect their bodies and preserve their innocence.  PLW will work to repeal the "Healthy Youth Act."

Repealing the contraception health insurance mandate

Two years ago Governor Doyle signed the 2009-2011 biennial budget bill into law as 2009 Wisconsin Act 28.  That budget included an onerous mandate forcing public and private health plans to cover contraceptive drugs and devices. Under the so-called "contraceptive equity" law, contraceptives are defined as drugs or devices approved by the FDA to "prevent pregnancy." Pregnancy is not a disease. The government should not force private and public health insurers - and the policy holders (businesses and individuals) who are paying for this expansion through increased premiums - to cover drugs and devices that are purely elective. The question is who should be responsible for these lifestyle choices. It should not be Wisconsin taxpayers, many of whom are medically and morally opposed to birth control.  PLW will work to repeal the contraception health insurance mandate.

Blocking UW Hospital and Clinics' funding of abortion training at Planned Parenthood

In response to open records requests made by Pro-Life Wisconsin last year, the UW Hospital and Clinics (UWHC) released emails revealing that the UWHC is paying resident physicians tens of thousands of dollars each year to train to perform abortions at the Planned Parenthood abortion center in Madison.  Although state law prohibits funds of the state or of a state agency from being spent on the performance of abortions, the UWHC escapes this restriction through a technical loophole.  This legal loophole must be closed so that current law abortion funding restrictions apply to the UWHC just as they do to all other state agencies.  PLW will work to pass the "No UW Agency Funding for Abortion Bill."

Opting-out of abortion coverage in Wisconsin's state health insurance exchange

United States House Resolution (H.R.) 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare), allows health insurance plans offering abortion coverage to participate in a state's insurance "exchange" and to receive federal subsidies unless the state legislature proactively opts-out of offering such plans. Although the state exchanges do not go into effect until 2014, several states have passed legislation to opt-out of abortion coverage, including Arizona, Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida, Missouri and Oklahoma.  In poll after poll, Americans overwhelmingly say they oppose the inclusion of taxpayer-funded abortion in health care reform legislation.  Government must not force us to participate in the killing of our preborn brothers and sisters with our federal tax dollars.  PLW will work to pass legislation opting the state of Wisconsin out of abortion coverage in its prospective state health insurance exchange.