Tune out the noise. Focus on the stakes. If you want the freedom to make your own decisions about abortion, birth control, IUDs, or IVF in 2025, then you care what happens in Wisconsin in the next 127 days.
Summary of this post: Trump has a plan to shred reproductive freedom. The entire election could hinge on Wisconsin. Today’s the end-of-quarter deadline—and if you donate now (our goal is 100 new donors), you help us beat Trump. Chip in.
We don’t need to imagine what Trump would do with a second term. He’s already got his extreme MAGA playbook ready to go. It’s called Project 2025.
It’s a comprehensive plan to end American freedom and democracy. Controlling women’s private medical decisions is one key piece of that.
Trump’s allies have laid out their plan to wield the power of the federal government to, without having to pass a law, make it illegal to transfer abortion medications via mail—creating a de facto national ban.
This is likely just the start of their assault. We just saw Republican senators block a Democratic bill protecting access to contraception, and another protecting access to IVF. Many far-right groups are explicit that their goal is to end access to both.
For example, the group Pro-Life Wisconsin—a player in right-wing politics here, says it very clearly on its website: “Pro-Life Wisconsin is opposed to all forms of artificial contraception.”
Is this who you want calling the shots?
In Wisconsin, we know what it was like to live under an abortion ban—because, for 451 days after Dobbs, without the protections of Roe v. Wade in place, we got to experience it.
The Wisconsin legislature passed a law in 1849 that said “the willful killing of an unborn quick child” constituted felony manslaughter. That archaic language, from before the invention of modern medicine, put Wisconsin doctors at risk of prosecution.
When Roe fell, fearing prosecution under the unclear 1849 law, Wisconsin clinics immediately ceased all abortion services—leaving Wisconsin women without access to vital reproductive care for the first time in nearly 50 years.
It took 15 months, but thanks to the efforts of Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, in July 2023, a Dane County judge ruled that the pre-Civil War law does not prohibit abortions, allowing services to resume in September. A win for reproductive health rights in Wisconsin… for now.
But the battle over abortion in Wisconsin rages on. Without a national law protecting abortion access, this will likely end in Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court. The majority there will be determined (again) in an election in April 2025. Freedom here dangles by a thread.
So the stakes are profoundly real for Wisconsinites. We’re one bad election away from an abortion ban, and worse, crashing down.
But what happens in Wisconsin’s elections won’t just shape freedom for Wisconsin—it will affect freedom for everyone else, too.
Why is Wisconsin so pivotal to reproductive freedom for the entire nation? Because Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes could well decide the presidential election. In 2020, President Biden won the state by just 0.63% of the vote.
In 2016, Trump won Wisconsin by just 0.77% of the vote. We are a purple state, so razor-thin margins under 1% have decided who gets our 10 electoral votes in 4 of the last 6 elections.
That’s why Trump keeps coming back here. It’s why the GOP is holding their convention in Milwaukee, even though Trump thinks it’s a “horrible city.” That’s why we have to prepare for an all-out MAGA assault—and work even harder.
If Trump wins, he’ll intensify his assault on reproductive rights. He said women should face “punishment” for having abortions, supports letting states prosecute doctors and monitor women, and is “looking at” policies to restrict birth control. Believe him.
But the very stakes in this election are also Trump and the GOP’s greatest weakness. Because every time voters have a chance to vote for or against their own freedom, the pro-freedom side emphatically wins.
In 2022—mere months after Dobbs—states like California, Vermont, and Michigan voted to protect abortion rights. But—surprise!—deep-red states like Kansas, Kentucky, and Montana voted to keep abortion legal, too.
In 2023, voters in Ohio—yet another red state—chose to keep abortion legal.
Evidently, no matter where in America they live, voters don’t want politicians overriding their personal medical decisions.
Americans. Freedom. They go together like stars and stripes.
And it’s not just referenda—it’s elections. Abortion banners took it on the chin in 2022. And they’ve been losing and underperforming in special elections and off-year elections ever since. Just look at the landslide Supreme Court race in Wisconsin last year.
Which brings us to right now.
Some Democrats are pulling out their hair, gnashing their teeth, wringing their hands.
Others are organizing.
Which kind do you want to be?
Chip in now. Help Wisconsin Dems expand freedom and defeat Trump.
Volunteer for WisDems. We can help you turn your time into votes. Help make sure Wisconsin stays blue on November 5.
Remember this. Not everyone knows the stakes. Even with Trump bragging about ending Roe v. Wade, 17% of voters mistakenly believe it was Joe Biden’s fault.
But you know the stakes. The question is, what are you going to do about it?