Health

Michelle Velasquez on expanding abortion access in Wisconsin

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin Chief Strategy Officer Michelle Velasquez discusses legal and legislative routes for reducing restrictions on abortion and bolstering options for pregnant patients.

By Aditi Debnath | Here & Now

October 29, 2024

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Michelle Velasquez:
To your question about expanding, you know, there's sort of two paths to do that. One is through the Legislature. So, the way to get rid of all of these laws that make it really hard for people to access care is to repeal them. Another path is through the courts. So, if the lawsuit is successful, the other laws, like the ones I mentioned, could potentially be challenged up against whatever the new constitutional standard might be. And repealing those laws, either legislatively or through legal challenges, would really create a path for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin and other health care providers to expand access — so, the use of telemedicine, getting rid of a 24 hour waiting period, the use of advanced nurse practitioners to provide a medication abortion. And I think, sort of beyond the legislative and legal paths to expanding is really a destigmatization of abortion. Abortion is a part of the full spectrum of sexual and reproductive health care. It's a decision for an individual to make with their provider about whether or not to continue a pregnancy — if there were complications in the pregnancy, how to manage those things. And so really the more that the medical procedure of abortion is accepted as a part of health care decisions that people have to make, the more available it may be beyond Planned Parenthood and the one independent provider here in Milwaukee.



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