Assembly Republicans eye abortion referendum for April ballot. Evers threatens veto.

MADISON - Assembly Republicans want to put on the April ballot a referendum on whether to limit abortion access in Wisconsin to 12 to 14 weeks of pregnancy.

But the move would require Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to back the idea, who reiterated Thursday he will veto any measure that limits abortion access to under 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Wisconsin Republicans have struggled to combat the political effects of the 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 the central issue in races in Wisconsin since.

"I get that folks on both sides of this are super passionate on all or nothing. But Wisconsin voters are not there for an all or nothing abortion process. It just isn't going to happen," Rep. Scott Krug, R-Nekoosa, said earlier this month in an interview on WSAU.

"People are not going to sit down and be OK with abortion on demand and people on the other side are not going to sit down and be OK with no abortion whatsoever. So there's got to be an in-between."

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Wednesday members of his caucus are going to try to pass legislation that would put a referendum question on the April ballot that asks voters whether to ban abortions after 12 or 14 weeks of pregnancy.

The idea Vos is backing would use a seldom-used process by which a law passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor can be enacted only with voters' approval.

Currently, abortions are banned after 20 weeks of pregnancy after a ruling from a Dane County Circuit judge in a lawsuit challenging the state's abortion law.

Vos said he wants voters to decide abortion rules instead of courts.

"I'd like to put something on the ballot in April that allows the people of Wisconsin to be the ones who get the final say on making a decision on abortion. So it's not the court. It's not the Legislature. It's not the governor. It's going to be the people who get the final choice," Vos said.

Vos said settling the abortion rules this way could put the issue "on the back burner," which could create "a little bit less contention in society."

But Evers said Thursday he won't sign legislation that includes such limits.

"The bottom line for me is this: Wisconsinites should be able to make their own reproductive healthcare decisions without interference from politicians who don’t know anything about their lives, their family, or their circumstances," Evers said in a statement. "And I’ll veto any bill that makes reproductive healthcare any less accessible for Wisconsinites than it is right now,”

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson last year pitched the idea of polling voters on what limits should be on abortion access. Johnson, who was running for re-election at the time, said he wanted the state's abortion law to be updated to include exceptions for victims of rape and incest.

Democratic state lawmakers later introduced unsuccessful measures that would accomplish that goal but were rejected by Vos and other Republican leaders.

It's also unclear whether Republicans who control the state Senate would support Vos' idea.

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu earlier this month said he was not sure how the Legislature would tackle the issue, but suggested it wouldn't be at issue until after a lawsuit challenging the state's abortion law had been resolved in the courts.

"I'm not sure what we would do at that point. I think it depends what the Supreme Court ultimately does," LeMahieu said. "If they say abortions are legal up until birth, or if they go back to the 20 week (limit) ... just depending on how they what their ruling is, then we'd have to react."

Molly Beck and Jessie Opoien can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com and jessie.opoien@jrn.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Assembly Republicans eye abortion referendum for April ballot