Onalaska Sen. Pfaff seeks more reproductive rights for Wisconsin women

One La Crosse area lawmaker is calling on the state to give women more reproductive rights.

State Sen. Brad Pfaff (D-Onalaska) would like to see the Roe vs. Wade court ruling codified into state law, as well as a repeal of the state’s 175-year-old abortion ban.

Pfaff, at a news conference Tuesday, thinks members of both parties can find common ground to allow greater rights to women.

“Unfortunately, Republican lawmakers in Madison have stood in the way of every one of these efforts,” Pfaff said. “And they are not just content to oppose these policies. They are dead-set on stripping women of their reproductive freedom.”

Pfaff thinks his state should follow the example of other states, “much more politically conservative than Wisconsin,” referring to Ohio and Kansas, in letting residents vote on abortion laws.

The senator met with reporters outside the La Crosse courthouse, marking two years since a U.S. Supreme Court decision reversed Roe vs. Wade, which has allowed abortions since the 1970s.

While Pfaff was speaking on the sidewalk, a spectator criticized him for supporting a legal right to abortion. The man demonstrating told Pfaff “if you support murder, sir, you need to repent.”