Wisconsin Women Could Be The Next To Die

A Wisconsin OBGYN , who desperately needed an abortion herself, warns that electing the Elon Musk endorsed anti abortion candidate Brad Schimel to the state Supreme Court could doom the state's women.

Dr. Igler and one of her daughters born after her needed abortion

I’ve written in previous posts about why it is so critical - especially now with the Trump/ Musk regime in power - to pay hyper close attention to who is running for office in your state, city or town whether it’s for your mayor, state legislature, school board and now for your state Supreme Court.

On April 1st, the fate of Wisconsin’s women - whether they will have the freedom to control their own bodies or not - will be in the hands of the Badger state’s voters.

Will they elect anti abortion zealot Judge Brad Schimel to their Supreme Court for the next ten years or liberal Judge Susan Crawford, who believes in protecting the rights of Americans and has actually done legal work for Planned Parenthood in the past, when she was still a practicing lawyer.

Dr. Anna Igler, an OBGYN and now a mom of three young children, who lives and works outside of Green Bay, has lots of thoughts and a much that’s important to say about how this election will affect Wisconsin’s women.

It’s outcome will determine whether she can give the best standard of care to her patients or whether women will unnecessarily suffer and potentially die because they live under a complete abortion ban from conception, passed in 1849.

I interviewed Dr Anna Igler who personally knows how unexpected a pregnancy complication and the need for an abortion can be.

She was forced to flee her state when she learned at 24 weeks pregnant that her much - wanted baby daughter had almost zero chance of survival. “I lived my worst nightmare. I am forever changed as a person, Igler told me.

While abortion was legal up to 20 weeks of pregnancy in Wisconsin at the time - 2020 - women in the state later lived for 15 months under the 1849 abortion law that banned abortion unless the mother’s life was at grave risk.

The 170 year old law was still on Wisconsin’s books when the Supreme Court with three Trump- appointed judges, overturned Roe V Wade after 50 years allowing the 1849 law to immediately go into effect in the state.

DR IGLER MADE THE TORTUROUS DECISION TO HAVE AN ABORTION

Fortunately, for the women of Wisconsin, a circuit court judge eventually ruled that the 1849 law didn’t actually apply to ‘consensual abortion’ and the procedure became legal again up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.

But now that situation could change if the Trump and Elon Musk - endorsed anti abortion MAGA judge Brad Schimel is elected to the state’s highest court on Sept 1.

Schimel is itching to enforce the ban and if he’s elected to the state Supreme Court he will tip the court into a far right majority. That means, the women and OBGYNs of Wisconsin will once again lose control over their own bodies.

All of this is why you need to pay attention to every election happening these days. If can only make the most personal medical decision for yourself and your family and if you leave your home state, to do it.

In Wisconsin the fight between Schimel and liberal judge Susan Crawford has turned into the most expensive state Supreme Court election ever in this country with over $67 million spent so far ( Thank you Supreme Court Justice John Roberts for your Citizen’s United decision that allowed kabillions of dollars into our elections.)

Dr. Igler never thought that she would need an abortion but at 24 weeks pregnant with a second baby, Igler learned that the daughter she was carrying had a dire prognosis: Her brain had been permanently damaged by a common virus called Cytomegalovirus (CMV) and she could die at any moment.

Igler discovered that she had caught the virus while she was pregnant, although she never had any symptoms. The virus had crossed her placenta and infected her developing daughter’s brain.

Igler says she was initiated into “the world of maternal grief. Deep, deep heartbreaking grief that never leaves you. Man, it is heartbreaking to lose a child like I did.”

Igler and her husband had to make the tortured decision to travel to Colorado to have an abortion “out of love and mercy, and not wanting her to suffer, because if she would have been born living she would have suffered so much,” Igler said.

Dr Igler with a daughter conceived by IVF after needing a medical abortion

That’s why Igler has been devoting her energy to appearing in public forums and on panels, speaking about what’s at stake for women being able to make their own decisions about reproductive healthcare, ahead of the April 1 election.

It’s also why an exhausted Igler, who had just been on call at her hospital for 24 hours, was determined to drive to Milwaukee on March 18 to join Judge Crawford at a rally in support of the judge and tell the story of why she herself had needed a heartbreaking abortion.

The rally Igler attended at the University of Wisconsin was packed and attentive as she spoke alongside abortion advocate Amanda Zurawski, who almost died from sepsis when she was denied an abortion in Texas after her water broke at 18 weeks.

BRAD SCHIMEL CALLS THE 1849 ABORTION BAN A VALID LAW

Igler wants Wisconsinites to know that Schimel, a Republican, calls the state’s 1849 ban a “valid law.”

He also contends that there is no right to an abortion in Wisconsin’s state constitution, an issue that is currently in front of the state’s Supreme Court. He has declared that if the Supreme Court finds that the Wisconsin constitution does protect the right to an abortion, then the ruling will be a “sham.”

But banning abortion isn’t the only way that Schimel has worked against the health care of all Wisconsinites. While serving as Wisconsin Attorney General from 2015 to 2019, he led a coalition of 20 Republican states which sought to overturn the Affordable Care Act.

In contrast, Crawford has committed to “protect the basic rights and freedoms of Wisconsinites under our constitution,” which she warns were threatened “by an all-out effort to politicize the court to drive a right-wing agenda.”

Crawford has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin and the reproductive rights group Reproductive Freedom For All.

Whichever judge is elected, their rulings will impact Wisconsinites for decades to come.

ELON MUSK IS TRYING TO BUY THE ELECTION FOR SCHIMEL

In recent days, Donald Trump’s top campaign donor and DOGE leader Elon Musk has begun offering Wisconsin voters $100 each to sign a petition in opposition to “activist judges,” which appears to be an attack on Susan Crawford. Since the race started, Musk has poured more than $13 million into trying to elect Brad Schimel, according to a tally by the Brennan Center for Justice.

Just days before Musk’s groups started spending on the Supreme Court race, electric car manufacturer Tesla sued the state of Wisconsin over a decision to not allow the company to open dealerships. Musk is the CEO of Tesla. The case could ultimately come before the state Supreme Court.

Schimel earlier this week campaigned with Donald Trump Jr. at an event where the president’s son said electing Schimel was essential for protecting Trump’s agenda.

Millions have also poured in from progressive and anti-MAGA donors in support of Susan Crawford.

“I CAN NOT SIT IDLY BY”

Despite juggling 80-hour work weeks and from caring for her young children, Dr. Igler told me that “I can not sit idly by and watch abortion rights taken away. Abortion bans hurt women. They kill women. There are politicians making laws about how I practice medicine. But I am the expert.”

“I went to medical school for four years and did a residency for four years. I’ve been a practicing, Board certified OB-GYN for over 10 years. They shouldn’t be telling me how to practice obstetrics and gynecology. I guarantee most of them don’t know what a fallopian tube is.”

She claps back at Wisconsin’s Republican state legislators who support Schimel and the 1849 law: “If you’re so interested in other people’s personal lives and their sexual practices and fertility, then why don’t you start regulating Viagra?”