Milwaukee County, Wisconsin leaders rejected a pro-abortion proposal Tuesday that would fund travel expenses and lodging for local government employees to abort their unborn babies.
The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors Personnel Committee voted 3-1 against the pro-abortion proposal, but the measure is not dead yet, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
The finance committee also is considering the abortion funding, and the full board could resurrect the measure even if both committees reject it, according to the report.
Wisconsin law protects unborn babies by banning elective abortions. The proposal, co-sponsored by Supervisors Ryan Clancy and Juan Miguel Martinez, would use Milwaukee residents’ tax dollars to reimburse county government employees for travel and lodging expenses if they go to other states to abort their unborn babies.
Fox 6 Now reports the proposal allocates $30,000 for abortion-related expenses and allows each employee to receive up to $1,849 in reimbursements. The year 1849 is when Wisconsin passed its abortion ban.
Margaret Daun, attorney for the county, warned the board that the proposal may be illegal. She pointed to a state law that prohibits state and local governments from using tax dollars to promote and provide elective abortions, according to the report.
ACTION ALERT: Contact the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors and let them know you oppose paying for abortion travel.
“What this is is a proposal to reimburse up to a stated budgetary amount travel out of state for a large category of medical procedures — some elective, some would argue not when the life of the woman is at risk,” Daun said.
Others said creating a new abortion fund does not look good when the county is asking the state government for a funding increase to cover necessities, according to the newspaper.
“I do not feel that — thinking about our taxpayers money and how we spend them — that this would be a very good way to spend the monies of our taxpayers. So, I just cannot vote for something like this,” Supervisor Patti Logsdon said.
However, leaders of another Wisconsin government, Dane County, did approve a similar abortion travel fund recently in response to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, according to the report.
The Wisconsin pre-Roe abortion ban went into effect in June after the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson. Now, unborn babies are being saved from abortion all across the state.
However, the state attorney general, a pro-abortion Democrat, filed a lawsuit challenging the ban, and three abortionists later joined him. They have not succeeded in convincing a court to block the law thus far, but pro-life advocates fear the law may be overturned after voters elected a pro-abortion judge to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in April.
Prior to the Dobbs ruling, abortions were legal for any reason up to 20 weeks in Wisconsin, and more than 6,400 unborn babies were aborted every year.
If the attorney general’s case succeeds, Wisconsin would go back to allowing unborn babies to be aborted for any reason up to 20 weeks.
Currently, Wisconsin is one of 15 states that protect unborn babies from abortion, and more are working to do the same this spring. While Wisconsin may lose its pro-life laws, other states like North Carolina, South Carolina, Iowa and Wyoming are working to increase protections for unborn babies.
ACTION ALERT: Contact the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors and let them know you oppose paying for abortion travel.
