Republican DA asks Wisconsin Supreme Court to decide abortion lawsuit without lower court ruling

A Republican prosecutor asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday to decide whether a 174-year-old state law bans abortion in the state without waiting for a ruling from a lower appellate court. The U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision legalizing abortion, reactivated an 1849 law that conservatives have interpreted as banning abortion. Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, filed a lawsuit arguing that the law is too old to enforce and conflicts with a 1985 law permitting abortions before fetuses can survive outside the womb.