Voters should be shown what 'abortion looks like at every stage of pregnancy,' Sen. Ron Johnson says

MADISON — Voters weighing their position should be shown what abortion looks like at every stage of pregnancy, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson told reporters Monday.

The Republican senator's comments came as Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris visited La Crosse to rally voters around abortion as the race for the presidency remains tight in this battleground state. Johnson advocated, as he has before, that the issue should be decided via referendum.

"We need to understand, first of all, what an abortion looks like at every stage of pregnancy. We've not had that discussion, which is why I recommended a referendum to ask that question: at what point does society have the  responsibility to protect life?" Johnson told reporters.

"But leading up to that referendum, we should have an education campaign that describes what life looks like inside the womb at different stages. You know, what babies could experience when they're viable — but also, as abhorrent as it would be, what does an abortion look like — at four weeks and eight weeks and 12 weeks?"

The vice president's latest Wisconsin visit reflects Democrats' efforts to make abortion a key factor in motivating turnout for President Joe Biden, including among voters in purple areas or even the traditionally red Milwaukee suburbs.

Women affected by abortion bans in other states campaigned for Biden in Waukesha County last week, and Harris brought a similar message to the area in January. Biden administration officials have also made frequent trips to Milwaukee and Madison this year, both Democratic strongholds.

"There is a clear line between where we are now and who is to blame," Harris said in La Crosse. "The former president (Donald Trump) was very clear with his intention — he would fill and appoint three members of the U.S. Supreme Court with the intention that they would overturn the protections of (Roe v. Wade)."

Johnson told reporters he wished the Republican-led state Senate would have approved a bill passed by Assembly Republicans asking voters whether Wisconsin should ban abortions after 14 weeks of pregnancy. With voters’ approval, it would have banned abortions 14 weeks after "probable fertilization" except in situations where the mother's life or health would be endangered without the procedure — a measure that would have reduced the timeframe for legal abortions in Wisconsin by six weeks.

The effort deployed a seldom-used process by which a law passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor can be enacted only with voters' approval. Had the Senate approved the Assembly bill as Johnson alluded to Monday there would have been virtually no chance Gov. Tony Evers would have signed it and sent the question to voters in a statewide referendum.

Wisconsin Republicans have struggled to combat the political effects of the 2022 U.S Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, which effectively put back into place a law that had been interpreted for more than a century to ban all abortions except when the mother would die without one. Abortion has become a central issue in races in Wisconsin since.

In the latest Marquette University Law School poll released last week, 24% of Democratic voters said they consider abortion their most important issue in deciding who to vote for, followed by the economy. For independent and Republican voters, 5% of those groups saw abortion as their top issue.

While abortion was the leading issue among Democratic participants, the economy was the No. 1 issue for all respondents in the survey, followed by immigration and abortion policy. Voters saw Biden better at handling abortion and health care, and Trump better on the economy and immigration.

A majority of registered voters in Wisconsin, 54%, also said they strongly or somewhat favor a national ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy with exceptions for rape, incest and the life and health of the mother.

In the same poll, 64% of voters said they believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 35% said it should be illegal in all or most cases.

"I don't think the mainstream media is honest when it comes to which political party holds the extreme position on abortion. The extreme position, I think the vast majority of Americans agree with this, is abortion unlimited up to the moment of birth. That is the extreme position," Johnson said.

A recent Kaiser Family Foundation analysis found that abortions at or after 21 weeks represent 1% of all abortions in the U.S., while 96% occurred at or before 15 weeks gestation. The analysis found that 3% occurred from 16 to 20 weeks gestation.

"Discussions on this topic are often fraught with misinformation; for example, intense public discussions have been sparked after several presidential candidates claimed there were abortions occurring 'moments before birth' or even 'after birth.' In reality, these scenarios do not occur, nor are they legal, in the United States," the report noted.

According to the same report, "Reasons individuals seek abortions later in pregnancy include medical concerns such as fetal anomalies or maternal life endangerment, as well as barriers to care that cause delays in obtaining an abortion."

Many fetal abnormalities are not identifiable until the 20-week ultrasound.

Two years ago, Johnson suggested voters should be able to weigh in on the question, "At what point does society have the responsibility to protect the life of an unborn child?" with options ranging from banning abortion at the moment of conception, to each month of pregnancy up until the eighth month or "never."

In a memo published during his 2022 reelection campaign, Johnson said he would oppose imposing penalties on mothers and supports exceptions in the case of rape, incest or the life of the mother. He also said he “fully” supports in vitro fertilization and contraception, and would “never” vote to prevent a woman from receiving life-saving care in the case of a miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy, or to prevent a woman from crossing state lines to access medical treatment, “including an abortion procedure.”

The Oshkosh Republican previously supported legislation in 2011 declaring the right to life starts at fertilization and has repeatedly co-sponsored federal legislation that would ban abortion 20 weeks after fertilization.

Hope Karnopp of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed from La Crosse.

Jessie Opoien can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ron Johnson says voters should be shown 'what abortion looks like'