Vang: How Wisconsin voters reclaimed abortion rights

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In a landmark decision that reverberates far beyond state lines, the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down the state’s 1849 abortion ban — a law so archaic it was written before the Civil War, before women had the right to vote, before germ theory was accepted, and before the concept of bodily autonomy was part of our public vocabulary.

While the court’s 4-3 decision is a powerful legal victory for reproductive rights, it is, at its heart, also a democratic one. This ruling belongs to the voters of Wisconsin who made their voices heard at the ballot box when they voted two liberal candidates onto the state Supreme Court: Susan M. Crawford in 2025 and Janet Protasiewicz in 2023. This signals that while democracy is on life support, it isn’t quite dead — regardless of how much King Trump, crown crooked, hands on the plug, is ready to yank it.

I live in Prescott, a little Norman Rockwell Wisconsin river town at the confluence of the Mississippi River and St. Croix River. Earlier this year, I wrote about the high-stakes nature of the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, calling attention to how it would shape the future of abortion access in the Midwest.

The 4–3 decision split along ideological lines, with Justice Protasiewicz joining the majority. She campaigned on a pro-abortion-rights platform, and her election flipped the court’s balance, giving liberals a majority for the first time in 15 years. This decision reflects how judicial interpretation — particularly in state courts — can dramatically shift with changes in public sentiment and electoral outcomes. Justice-elect Crawford will take office Aug. 1, maintaining the liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Wisconsin’s dormant 1849 law — which criminalized nearly all abortions — became possibly in play again. Amid threats of enforcement, some clinics closed for a period of time. Providers went silent. Patients were left in limbo. And chaos reigned across the state from Milwaukee to Prescott. It was a chilling reminder that hard-won rights can be revoked overnight. But it also galvanized a movement — a new wave of civic engagement that turned a judicial election into a referendum on reproductive freedom.

Now that wave has crashed into the bench with the full force of democracy.

The court’s decision is more than symbolic. It restores access to abortion services in Wisconsin and reinforces the idea that a handful of politicians from the 1800s cannot dictate the rights of women and people who become pregnant in 2025. The 1849 law was written in a time when women had no voice in the political system — no right to vote, to run for office or to challenge the law. To cling to it now, as some still wish to do, is to declare that modern lives should be governed by obsolete, patriarchal logic.

Let’s be clear: Democracy requires effort, attention, and the courage to act. Wisconsin’s voters understood that. They didn’t sit back. They read the headlines, registered to vote, and turned out in droves for an off-cycle judicial election — a type of contest that normally flies under the radar.

This moment is a lesson for those outside of Wisconsin. If you want to live in a country where rights are not only restored but protected, you have to engage in every election — not just the presidential ones. School boards, judges, city councils, state legislators — these are the places where our freedoms are most often defined or denied.

The fall of Roe was a devastating loss. But the victory in Wisconsin is proof that democracy, when activated by informed and motivated voters, can be a powerful force for justice. It is a reminder that we the people still have the final word.