Pro-Life Wisconsin requests Attorney General to enforce law against UW Hospital funding of abortion training

From Pro-Life Wisconsin:

On behalf of Pro-Life Wisconsin, the Alliance Defense Fund filed a formal request on Tuesday, July 5, with the Wisconsin Attorney General’s office to confirm the illegality of and enforce the law against the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics (UWHC) Authority’s payment of physician-residents for abortion training at Planned Parenthood in Madison. The recently-signed state budget specifically applies current law restrictions on abortion funding to the UWHC Authority.

Our University of Wisconsin public entities should not be ground zero for training abortionists. Residents need to be instructed how to save, preserve and respect life, not how to kill preborn children at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, the state's number-one abortion provider.

To view the letter to the Attorney General, click here.

Medical residents in the UW School of Medicine Ob/Gyn Department have two four-week rotations at Planned Parenthood, where they view and participate in abortions. To view the rotation schedule, click here. To view the signed contract between UW and Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, click here.

Wisconsin law is crystal clear: No state agency can fund abortions. The UWHC Authority is a state agency, and it is not above the law. We look forward to Attorney General Van Hollen’s confirmation and enforcement of this critical law so that the UWHC does not stubbornly persist in their illegal and offensive abortion funding.

Laurel Rice, chair of the UWHC Authority's ob/gyn department, performs abortions at Planned Parenthood in Madison.

Background regarding UW Hospital and its ties to Planned Parenthood:

- In March 2010, an open records request done by Pro-Life Wisconsin and the Alliance Defense Fund revealed that UW Hospital was sending ob/gyn medical school residents to PPWI for abortion training.

- In April 2010, PLW and ADF filed a request for a legal opinion with the state of Wisconsin Attorney General’s office on whether it was legal for state taxpayer funds to be used to train future abortionists.

- In June 2010, the Attorney General’s office concurred that UW was violating state law and sent the matter on for a state funding audit.

- When the budget was being voted on, a budget provision was inserted defining UW Hospital as a state agency, effectively ending UW Hospital’s ability to send its residents over to PPWI.