Health Professionals Say State’s Abortion Laws Restrict Care

Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) moderated a Tuesday panel with medical students and health care professionals on restrictions to abortion and the effects on care. Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Following a recent state Supreme Court decision that upheld legal abortion in Wisconsin, medical students and health care professionals say Wisconsin laws and the Trump administration attacks on reproductive health still make care inaccessible for many patients and that physicians still face significant challenges in providing care.

In July, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled invalid an 1849 criminal law that had halted abortion care in the state for over a year following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that revived previously unenforceable abortion bans on the books in many states. In its 4-3 decision, the Court found the law had effectively been repealed by other laws passed after it.

During a Tuesday panel discussion hosted by the advocacy organization Free & Just, Dr. Abigail Cutler, a practicing OB/GYN at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine & Public Health, said the decision provided a “reason to celebrate” but ultimately it brought the state “back to a pretty low bar.”

“We have just a slew of abortion restrictions on the books that pre-dated Dobbs that make it really, really difficult to access care if you’re a patient and to provide care if you’re a provider,” Cutler said, adding that the decision also doesn’t prohibit the state Legislature from potentially passing an abortion ban in the future. “Our right to access abortion in our state and to provide it freely is not protected.”

Some Wisconsin laws restricting abortion include a 22-week ban, a requirement that patients have two, in-person visits with a physician, a mandatory ultrasound, a prohibition on telehealth abortion care and a parental consent requirement for minors seeking an abortion. Wisconsin, in line with federal law, prohibits its state Medicaid program from covering abortions except in limited circumstances.

Amy Williamson, associate director of the Collaborative for Reproductive Equity, a research initiative at UW-Madison, said the state law prohibiting telehealth related to abortion isn’t based in science.

“There’s plenty of studies that indicate that abortions can be provided safely and effectively through telehealth, whether it’s the consultation you could do by telehealth, or you can provide a medication abortion by telehealth,” Williamson said. “If we were able to change that, we know that we could expand access to care in the state, like with other health care services.”

Cutler said the “most insidious restriction” to her is the restrictions on insurance coverage for abortion care.

“If you cannot pay for the care that you need, then you’re not going to get the care. You’re going to choose to provide food for your kids, you’re going to choose to keep going to your job and not taking time off from work,” Cutler said.

In addition to state restrictions, the Trump administration has been targeting abortion care on a federal level.

Trump’s recent megabill approved this summer included a provision to prohibit Planned Parenthood from accessing Medicaid payments.

The Hyde Amendment has long banned the use of federal dollars to pay for abortion care, but the new provision went further by banning federal support for nonprofit facilities that provide abortions using separate funds. The provision has been challenged in court, though a federal judge recently ruled in favor of the administration.

Williamson called Planned Parenthood a “really critical part of the economic safety net,” noting that about one in five women of reproductive age who are on Medicaid get their care at Planned Parenthood.

Williamson said that given the array of services, cuts would also mean further consequences.

“This leads to a decrease in contraceptive use, an increase of undesired pregnancies, undetected and untreated STIs and less opportunities to identify cancer early,” Williamson said. “We can be doing better. It’s not rocket science.”

“When Planned Parenthood is targeted, it is because they provide abortions,” Cutler added. “In the state of Wisconsin, they are also one of the largest providers of non-abortion care, preventative and reproductive health services to so many people in our state … so that’s really concerning, and it’s why a lot of people are referring to that bill as a backdoor abortion ban.”

Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison), who moderated the panel, said abortion bans “do not stop abortion… but what they do do is they kill women, and they make all of us vulnerable to not receiving the medical care that we need.” She said it’s important to continue conversations about changes that need to be made, though state-level bills to protect access may be in limbo under split government.

Roys and her Democratic colleagues introduced a bill earlier this year that would repeal many of the abortion restrictions on Wisconsin’s books.

“I think these bills are unlikely to advance until we have elections and new leadership in the Capitol,” Roys said during the panel.

Republicans currently hold majorities in the Assembly and Senate in Wisconsin, though control will be up for grabs in the 2026 elections. The governor’s office is also an open race with the retirement of Gov. Tony Evers.

Roys told the Examiner after the panel that she is “very likely” to enter the 2026 race for governor and she thinks reproductive health could be one motivating issue for voters come next year.

“In a time when reproductive freedom is threatened, people want someone who is a champion and not mealymouthed. This is a popular issue, and it’s a really important economic issue,” Roys said.

Roys said Democrats are also planning to introduce several other reproductive health bills this fall. Those include one to help with infertility coverage, one to ensure young people have access to “medically accurate, age-appropriate, comprehensive information to help them make healthy choices throughout their lives, especially with respect to sexuality and reproduction” and one to help protect people from being prosecuted for certain outcomes in pregnancy.

“We have seen pregnancy criminalization around the country — people being arrested, jailed, prosecuted for having miscarriages,” Roys said, adding that it is personal to her as someone who has had a miscarriage. “This is a known and intended outcome of abortion bans is for our pregnancies, our periods to be policed.”

The panel also discussed how restrictions in Wisconsin are affecting the state’s health care workforce.

Cutler spoke about research she worked on that focused on 21 OB-GYNs working under the 1849 law, which had an exception for the life of the mother, before there was a final decision invalidating that felony abortion ban.

“It was really alarming because participant after participant described how difficult it was to interpret this vague, ambiguous law into their medical practice,” Cutler said. “As a result, there were wide, wide variations in the kind of care being provided to patients presenting with the exact same problem.”

According to a CORE brief, some OB-GYNs had contemplated leaving the state due to restrictions, though most expressed a commitment to staying in Wisconsin in part because they felt responsible for their community.

Cutler said the data is mixed when it comes to the specific effects of restrictions on the workforce, but pointed to recent research from University of Illinois-Champaign that found that targeted regulations of abortion providers are associated with significant decreases in the density of OB-GYNs.

“This study suggests that these providers are just retiring. They’re stopping practice all together, not even leaving the states where they’re restricted,” Cutler said. “That’s also a problem because you’re diminishing the workforce.”

Cutler said the restrictions in Wisconsin are also at the top of mind for medical students

“What are the restrictions in Wisconsin? Am I going to be able to get abortion training in Wisconsin?” Cutler said she’s asked. “It’s difficult to reassure people of the stability of the landscape when so much feels uncertain and again tied to political whims and election outcomes that are not completely within our control.

Cutler noted that there has been a decrease in residency applications at the UW OB/GYN residency program since the Dobbs decision in 2022. According to a CORE brief on the OB-GYN workforce, Wisconsin witnessed an 8% drop in applications for OB/GYN residency training programs in 2023 and a 10% drop in 2024.

Morgan Homme, a member of Medical Students for Choice UW-Madison, said she constantly thinks about whether she wants to do her residency and practice in Wisconsin.

“It’s a hard choice and a hard thing, you have to grapple with,” Homme said. “I grew up here, and all my family is here, and I do like it. I do love the state, but if they’re not going to allow me to practice the way that I want, the full scope of care, then why would I limit myself to that and limit my training?”

Health professionals and students say abortion restrictions in Wisconsin diminish care was originally published by the Wisconsin Examiner.