Here & Now

Evers Calls Special Session to Implement Abortion Referendum

Frederica Freyberg:

Governor Tony Evers this week called for an October 4 special session of the legislature, which Republicans have already said they will gavel in and immediately gavel out of. The measure they are tasked to take up: statewide ballot initiatives. The process allows Wisconsin citizens to circumvent the legislature and use the ballot box to vote in state law. In a press conference, the governor said this would allow Wisconsin voters to directly take up abortion.

Tony Evers:

Wisconsin’s current laws do not allow voters to change state law by referendum. Voters cannot introduce referenda or initiatives to be voted on by the people of Wisconsin. I’ll be calling on the legislature in the special session to take up a constitutional amendment that will enable the people of Wisconsin to go to referendum and repeal our 1849 era criminal abortion ban to ensure women across our state will go back to having the same rights now that they did the day before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.