"With this stealth attack on abortion rights, state legislators and Governor Tommy Thompson have sent Wisconsin women back to pre-Roe days of interstate travel and back alleys," said NOW President Patricia Ireland. Ireland also said Wisconsin is just the first state where abortion could become illegal or inaccessible if state bans survive court challenges, or if Congress overrides the President's veto of the federal ban.

"When we've argued that these bans, which supposedly prohibit a specific late-term procedure, are really back-door attempts to ban abortion altogether, we've been treated like Chicken Little alarmists. Well, the sky just fell on Wisconsin women!" Ireland continued.

"Although the Webster v. Reproductive Health Services and later rulings gave states some latitude in restricting abortion rights, the justices did not overturn Roe v. Wade. Apparently, elected officials in Wisconsin think Supreme Court decisions don't apply to them."

Ireland questioned the objectivity of federal District Court Judge John C. Shabaz. "If the conservatives are threatened by 'judicial activism' their first target ought to be judges like Judge Shabaz." According to the Washington Post, Shabaz said he considered what he called "the harm to the parents of those perhaps several hundred living post-first-trimester children who may be unnecessarily killed," in denying a temporary injunction against the ban.

Finally, Ireland challenged activists across the country to contact their US senators. "Don't think for a minute that this threat is limited to Wisconsin. If the Senate doesn't uphold Clinton's veto of the federal abortion procedure ban, women in every state may very well find themselves in the same position as women in Wisconsin. Tell your Senators to uphold the president's veto of H.R. 1122, the so-called Partial Birth Abortion Ban."

Note: The Summit Women's Health Organization of Milwaukee is one of the named plaintiffs who won triple damages in NOW v. Scheidler, the landmark class action suit against anti-abortion racketeers. To receive news releases via email, go to http://www.now.org/press/signup.html