308
submitted 2 years ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

A Wisconsin circuit court judge has ruled that an 1849 law that classifies the destruction of a fetus by someone other than the mother as a felony does not outlaw abortions, returning the state’s abortion access to its pre-Dobbs status.

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Diane Schlipper on Tuesday reaffirmed a ruling she issued earlier this year, finding that an 1800s-era law “does not apply to consensual abortions, but to feticide.”

After the Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling in 2022, the question was raised over whether a Wisconsin state law passed in 1849 could go into effect. Roe had effectively invalidated the law when it was in effect.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] ThePantser@lemmy.world -5 points 2 years ago

Point made but those laws would be passed unanimously no matter the year, nobody wants to be murdered. Better point would be decency laws where it's crazy that men can be topless but women can't. Those laws are old too.

[-] BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social 5 points 2 years ago

Okay, but you'll find that some laws are a bit more controversial than murder being bad.

Exhibit A: points vigorously all around

Those kind of obsolete laws tend to not be enforced either, and thrown out if they ever are, so it's not really a significant problem. It's important for economic and social stability that the law have some amount of stability and that we're not constantly revamping everything every decade or so.

[-] gregorum@lemm.ee 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Fun fact: it’s actually legal for women to be topless in New York due to a lawsuit over this very issue.

[-] ThePantser@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Yes, but abortion is also legal in some places that's why I used that as a better example.

[-] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago

I mean, you say "it's obvious" but we don't know it to be true unless people vote on it. "Obvious" to you can be "controversial" to somebody else (e.g. it depends on who is being killed and why).

There are many laws older than 100 years that we keep for good reason. Most of the US constitution, theft, land rights, etc. There's absolutely no reason to think negatively about a law simply based on how "old" it is. If people change their minds over time we pass new laws to reflect that. That's "how it works". You can't simply say "bah, that's an old weird law lets ignore it now."

this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2023
308 points (99.7% liked)

News

35915 readers
3406 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.


Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, blogs, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.


7. No duplicate posts.


If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.


All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS