Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) plans to sign a Wisconsin bill banning abortions after 20 weeks and supports similar legislation at the federal level, he says in an open letter, a shift from his refusal to discuss the matter before his 2014 reelection.
{mosads}”As the Wisconsin legislature moves forward in the coming session, further protections for mother and child are likely to come to my desk in the form of a bill to prohibit abortions after 20 weeks. I will sign that bill when it gets to my desk and support similar legislation on the federal level,” Walker writes to the anti-abortion group the Susan B. Anthony List. “I was raised to believe in the sanctity of life and I will always fight to protect it.”
Walker has long opposed abortion — he sponsored a 1998 bill while in the state legislature banning abortions after 20 weeks and has signed other laws in the state restricting access to abortions and defunding Planned Parenthood — but during his tough 2014 reelection fight he refused to say whether or not he’d support a ban in the state.
“Those are things that we’ll have to talk about in the next legislative session if it comes up,” he said in October when asked about the potential ban.
Now he’s looking to emphasize his anti-abortion views as he courts religious conservative voters in his likely presidential bid.
Some anti-abortion activists were upset when Walker ran an ad in the closing days of that campaign calling abortion an “agonizing decision” and promising the other abortion measures he’d signed leave “the final decision to a woman and her doctor.”
He also drew some heat in anti-abortion circles for a Fox News appearance last week when he said banning abortion is “not a change you can make — the Supreme Court ultimately has made that” — referring to the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade that ruled abortion legal.
Walker touts his support for abortion-related laws in the letter.
“In my past four years as governor, we have made substantial progress in the fight for our pro-life values in Wisconsin,” he said. “We defunded Planned Parenthood. We prohibited abortion from being covered by health plans in a health exchange. We passed legislation assuring the women and their unborn child are better protected under law — through placing stringent requirements on medical professionals and requiring the provision of thorough and vital information to the mother.”