Democrats lean into anniversary of Dobbs abortion decision to mobilize Wisconsin voters

MADISON – Democrats leaned hard this week into the two-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade to tout efforts to protect abortion access, an issue they’re counting on to fire up key base voters in President Joe Biden's reelection bid.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren spoke to a crowd of about 400 people Monday night at Madison's Majestic Theatre, where she focused on the impact of the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court ruling and slammed what she characterized as former President Donald Trump’s threats to reproductive rights.

"Donald Trump and the extremist Republicans are coming for access to abortion, access to contraception and access to IVF and it is up to us to stop them," Warren said. "The very notion that health care is a private decision between a patient and a physician, that is on the ballot on Nov. 5."

Wisconsin Democratic Chair Ben Wikler, Lt. Gov Sara Rodriguez and Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski joined Warren. The event followed earlier ones Monday, including a roundtable led by Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who is locked in a reelection battle with Republican Eric Hovde. Similar events were planned in Eau Claire and Hudson on Tuesday.

“You know those moments, those points in history that just stay in your brain forever when something shocking happened? That's what overturned Dobbs was for all women across the United States," Rodriguez said.

Warren said more than one in every three women in the country who are of reproductive age live in states that enacted abortion bans at six weeks of pregnancy or less.

"They're not stopping until it's three out of three women," Warren said.

Abortion proved a salient issue in high-profile races across the state, and Democrats are trying to make their message resonate with the same potency ahead of the November elections.

Gov. Tony Evers in 2022 and state Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz in 2023 campaigned on abortion access following the Dobbs ruling.

After the decision revived an 1849 state abortion law banning the practice in situations except when the mother would die without one, abortion rights were suspended for 15 months until a Dane County ruling reversed the ban — a decision that is being appealed to the state Supreme Court. Trump declined to weigh in on the ban during a May trip to Waukesha.

Trump has frequently taken credit for knocking down Roe v. Wade and has also suggested states should set their own abortion policies, not the federal government.

“After 50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade,” Trump wrote in a May 2023 post on Truth Social. “Without me there would be no 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 15 weeks, or whatever is finally agreed to. Without me the pro Life movement would have just kept losing.”

Advocates increasingly frame abortion as issue of bodily autonomy, emphasizing contraception, in vitro fertilization and medication.

"This is about control of our bodies and having the freedom to decide what happens to our bodies and in our lives," Jessica Mackler, the president of liberal EMILY's List, told the Journal Sentinel prior to speaking at the Warren event Monday evening.

Abortion could prove pivotal to a close election in Wisconsin

The most recent Marquette University Law School poll found abortion policy ranked third in issues following the economy and immigration and border security. Stances on abortion have remained stable, with 70% saying abortion should be legal in all or most cases compared to 30% that say it should be illegal in all or most cases.

Still, a record share of U.S. voters say they’ve become one-issue voters on abortion rights, especially among women ages 18 to 49.

Wikler said candidates who pushed abortion rights saw successes in 2022 despite similar polling that it didn’t top the list of issues. Advocates said abortion usually isn’t the first thing on voters’ minds because it’s not something people need access to every day, unlike gas or groceries.

“When there was a clear choice between someone who would take their freedom away and someone who would fight to defend that freedom, voters chose the pro-freedom candidate, the candidate that believes abortion should be a personal decision,” Wikler said.

Trump has warned his supporters the issue could hurt Republicans, particularly if Congress were to pursue a federal abortion ban, and said states should set their own abortion policies, not the federal government.

Republicans in Wisconsin have struggled to unify around a position on the issue, with the Republican National Convention in July fast approaching.

At the party’s state convention in May, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson urged attendees to unify their position and warned Democrats will seek to make the 2024 presidential election a referendum on the issue.

The issue could help make or break the election in Wisconsin, where Trump lost the 2020 election by under 21,000 votes.

That Democrats chose Madison to deliver their message Monday wasn't surprising. Fast-growing Dane County has become an essential base for the party. Madison and its nearby suburbs generated about 35,000 more votes in 2020 than in 2016's martchup between Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Democratic politicians Monday evening called on voters to door knock, text and volunteer with the Biden-Harris team.

"You're really the wedge point here," Warren told the room at the Majestic Theatre. "What I want to do is remind all of you how much power you have. You are in a state which is going to be key to who the next President of the United States."

In an interview Tuesday, Warren told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Biden’s biggest challenge ahead of November is “making sure that people see the contrast between Trump and Biden.”

“The difference between Joe Biden and Donald Trump couldn’t be sharper,” Warren said. "Donald Trump is bragging about overturning Roe vs. Wade, taking full credit. Joe Biden is fighting for healthcare decisions to be made by a patient and a doctor, not a politician in Washington.”

The Biden-Harris campaign has made abortion rights a touchstone of their campaign and often deployed surrogates to push their message in the Midwest. Biden or campaign officials have made 14 visits this year.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer joined Gov. Tony Evers on June 17 in a roundtable discussion on reproductive rights and Vice President Kamala Harris kicked off her nationwide “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour in January in Waukesha County.

Wisconsin Republicans criticized Warren’s visit to Wisconsin.

“From pushing to abolish ICE to parroting Hamas’ propaganda, Elizabeth Warren represents everything wrong with the extremist agenda of the Wisconsin Democrats,” Wisconsin GOP spokesperson Matt Fisher said in a statement. “Wisconsinites are tired of failed leftist politicians prioritizing special interest groups over our national interests.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Elizabeth Warren seeks to energize Wisconsin swing voters on abortion