Planned Parenthood, pro-choice advocates call on Sheboygan County DA Joel Urmanski to not 'criminalize' abortions

SHEBOYGAN — Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin and abortion rights advocates called on Sheboygan County District Attorney Joel Urmanksi to not appeal a recent court ruling that loosened restrictions on abortion at a press conference Dec. 7 outside the Sheboygan County Courthouse, which holds Urmanski’s office.  

This comes two days after Dane County Circuit Judge Diane Schlipper determined an 1849 state law interpreted as essentially banning abortions, actually applies to feticide, based on a 1994 state Supreme Court ruling. 

The 19th-century law, reinstated after Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, prohibited doctors from performing abortions in Wisconsin unless in life-saving situations of the mother. If found in violation, they faced felony charges, six years of prison and $10,000 in fines.

Schlipper’s ruling determined the 1849 law didn’t ban “consensual abortion,” in which a person voluntarily ends their pregnancy through a medical procedure, but rather feticide, which results in the nonconsensual end of a pregnancy from battering a pregnant person. 

“Pro-Life Wisconsin wholly opposes this egregious ruling overturning Wisconsin’s abortion ban,” Matt Sande, legislative director for Pro-Life Wisconsin, said in a news release. Sande added Schlipper’s ruling is an “extraordinary leap in logic.” 

Urmanski, a defendant in the case, said Wednesday he intends to appeal the decision. 

Urmanski said in a statement to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via an attorney: "In my view, the statute plainly applies to abortion, and while it may be that the citizens of Wisconsin would be better served by a different statute, I do not believe it is my job or the role of the courts to make that determination. 

"It is an issue for the Legislature and the governor to resolve,” he continued.

Michelle Valasquez, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin Chief Strategy Officer, said the ruling gives reassurance that “they (providers) could treat their patients and that a patient could receive the essential health care that he or she needed when they needed it without fear of prosecution.” 

“In choosing to appeal, that's really a choice to try and actively criminalize abortion, to make this important health care inaccessible to folks in Sheboygan and potentially folks around the state,” Valasquez said at the press conference in front of pro-choice advocates holding pink “Abortion is Health Care” signs.

With the ruling, abortion is banned after 20 weeks of pregnancy. A pregnant person must get an ultrasound, counseling appointment and wait 24 hours. Those seeking medication abortions cannot take pills remotely and must receive them from the same doctor who conducted the counseling appointment. 

The circuit court ruling is the latest development after Schlipper denied Urmanski’s motion to dismiss Gov. Tony Evers’ and Attorney General Josh Kaul’s lawsuit, which was filed shortly after the overturn of Roe.

In July, Schlipper signaled she didn’t believe the 1849 law prohibited consensual abortions, presenting an opportunity for Planned Parenthood to resume abortion services at Milwaukee and Madison clinics.  

The organization plans to resume services at the Sheboygan site as well, but no plans have been solidified yet. 

Sheboygan is a central spot for surrounding communities and larger cities like Appleton and Green Bay for people to receive abortion care, Valasquez said.  

“Abortion is health care,” she said. “It is really essential that that center be open, and when there are restrictions and bans in place, it’s really rural communities, with people of color, women of color that suffer the most.

“An appeal or a motion to stay the decision could potentially cut that service off from being restarted,” Valasquez said.  

The appeal could rise to the state Supreme Court, now a liberal majority with the addition of Justice Janet Protasiewicz. 

The latest on Wisconsin's abortion law:A judge ruled Wisconsin's 1849 law doesn't apply to abortions. Here's what to know.

Women stand against, for abortion access

Feelings around abortion access are mixed, locally and across the state.  

Toward the end of the press conference, a woman drove by and shouted from her car: “I had an abortion. It messed me up physically and mentally. Did you have an abortion? I did. How dare you?”  

She did not stay to share more.  

This followed an experience shared by Sheboygan resident Cheryl Janey, 66, earlier in the conference who said an abortion early on in her pregnancy could’ve saved her trauma, pain and suffering when she miscarried.  

About 40 years ago, Janey said she was not feeling well during a Christmas party. She was pregnant for the third time. Janey and her husband were elated. She had miscarried before. 

With cramps, she went home. After going to see her doctor, she learned her baby didn’t have a heartbeat. She said her doctor referred her to a specialist, who wrote off the lack of movement and told her to get rest. The pain increased and she went to the hospital.  

“They stick me in the maternity ward,” Janey said. “Great place to put a woman who's going to lose a baby. Not so much.” 

Janey miscarried and had to undergo a dilation and curettage, D&C, surgical procedure. She said she doesn’t want other women to go through what she did.  

“That was 12 days of hell for me because I was bleeding. I was cramping. I had seen that baby do flips inside me and heard the heartbeat, and there was nothing. You can't tell me that after that I should have had to wait for it to happen naturally,” she said. “That was just very unfair.” 

Planned Parenthood will continue abortion patient navigator services 

As Planned Parenthood continues fighting the appeal, Valasquez said the organization is continuing to staff its abortion patient navigator team, an effort launched after abortion access was restricted in the state.  

The team helped eliminate barriers to abortion care outside of the state, whether through transportation or hotel costs, a challenge especially hard for residents in rural and northern Wisconsin.  

“To be clear, patients, even prior to Dobbs, experienced a lot of challenges and barriers to obtaining abortion care,” Valasquez said. “Folks were always helping people connect to resources ... but Dobbs, of course, amplified a need.”  

Team members will continue to assist patients with financial resources and planning to get to appointments, she said.  

After news broke in September that Planned Parenthood would resume services, Germaine Souik, co-leader of Sheboygan-40 Days for Life, said the organization would continue its “peaceful, prayerful” vigils outside Sheboygan’s clinic, as it has done for the last five years.  

40 Days for Life’s goal is to end referrals and chemical or surgical abortions at the site, Souik continued.  

"We will continue to pray for the lives of innocent unborn babies and for their parents,” she said about the recent court ruling. “Life begins at fertilization — abortion always ends an innocent human life." 

Contact Alex Garner at 224-374-2332 or agarner@gannett.com. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @alexx_garner.