(LifeSiteNews) — After pausing abortions for nearly a month, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin (PPWI) in officially resuming the gravely immoral practice.
On October 1, the group halted abortion services, pointing to President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.” The legislation included a one-year ban on federal tax dollars being directed via Medicaid to any entity that commits abortions for reasons other than rape, incest, or supposed threats to the mother’s life. Roughly 60 percent of PPWI’s patients are covered by Medicaid.
“This sweeping piece of legislation defunded Planned Parenthood, and significantly cut federal Medicaid funding,” the group said in a statement.
PPWI started rescheduling abortions at the end of October after designating itself an “essential community provider” with the Department of Health and Human Services. The group says the change means it longer meets the definition of a “prohibited entity” in Trump’s bill.
Planned Parenthood offers surgical abortions at two locations in Wisconsin, one in Milwaukee and another in Madison. A third location in Sheboygan provides women with chemical abortion pills.
PPWI halted abortions after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, though doors were reopened after a Wisconsin Supreme Court’s 4-3 ruling in July invalidated the state’s previous 1849 ban on abortion.
According to the Associated Press, PPWI says it performed 3,727 abortions in the state between Oct. 1, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2024.
Within weeks of being sworn in, President Trump began enforcing the Hyde Amendment, which forbids most federal funds from directly supporting elective abortions, and reinstated the Mexico City Policy, which bans non-governmental organizations from using tax dollars for elective abortions.
While pro-lifers held out hope that the Trump administration would ban chemical abortion pill Mifepristone, the FDA announced in October that a generic version had been approved. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. previously told Congressional hearings that he was studying the “safety” of the pill, giving pro-lifers hope that he would ban it outright.
Neighboring Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed two laws in August that make abortion and contraception pills available on college campuses and removes “approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration” from the definition of “emergency contraception.” They also shield abortion providers from out-of-state prosecutions for helping facilitate abortions in pro-life states.
Pro-life lawmakers across the U.S. have pursued creative ways to fight back against measures taken by Pritzker and other pro-abortion governors. On November 24, Howard County, Texas, became the 14th county in the United States to ban abortion. On November 17, Wolfforth, Texas, became America’s 85th sanctuary city for pre-born babies, declaring nearly all abortions illegal within its boundaries.
Texas is one of 12 states that bans all or most abortions as pro-abortion forces continue to fight for abortion “access” via deregulated interstate distribution of abortion pills and legal protection and financial support of interstate abortion travel.
Earlier this week, a three-judge panel upheld a U.S. District Court judge’s previous decision siding against New York Attorney General Letitia James, who had been seeking to ban crisis pregnancy centers across the state from promoting the pills as a way to reverse the effects of chemical abortions. James had brought a suit against 11 pregnancy centers last year, arguing they were violating consumer protection laws by “misleading” women about the efficacy of abortion pill reversal treatment.
During a chemical abortion, the first pill, mifepristone, attempts to starve the child developing in utero by blocking the pregnancy hormone progesterone. However, after taking the first pill, a woman can still change her mind. She can undergo emergency procedures to reverse the effects of the first pill. Provided she has not taken the second pill, her baby can often be saved through this process, which is known as Abortion Pill Reversal. The second drug of a chemical abortion is misoprostol, which is ingested 24-48 hours later, usually at home. Misoprostol causes the uterus to contract, expelling the baby. This can result in cramping, bleeding, and often requires medical attention.
