Current Status - Summary

As of October 27, Wisconsin’s rights landscape in 2025 is a study in contrasts. The state has taken meaningful steps forward in women's health and voting fairness, even as ongoing fights over gender, education, and equity reveal deep political divides. Women’s rights here are shaped as much by state-level court rulings as by shifting national policies—leaving progress uneven, but unmistakably active.

Women's Health

Reproductive Rights

The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s July 2025 ruling striking down the 1849 abortion ban restored abortion access under modern law, making Wisconsin one of the few Midwestern states where abortion remains legal. Clinics have resumed care, but federal rollbacks to EMTALA guidance, looming Medicaid cuts, and ongoing medication-abortion debates continue to shape access and provider caution. A Senate bipartisan bill to expand postpartum coverage for BadgerCare members has not moved beyond the Assembly.

Healthcare Access
Two 2025 bills mark an attempt toward catching up with other states on broader women's health access - allowing pharmacists to prescribe birth control directly to patients without a doctor's visit, and requiring insurance to cover supplemental breast imaging for high-risk women at no cost. If passed, both laws will help women access preventive care more easily, leading to better long-term health outcomes.

Workplace Rights

Proposals for paid family and medical leave remain stalled in the Legislature, but a partial extension of pandemic-era child care subsidies was approved, keeping Wisconsin a bit behind neighboring states in family-support policy. Workforce participation remains high, but limited access to affordable child care and paid time off continues to limit economic mobility for lower-income and single mothers.

Violence & Safety

Lawmakers introduced bipartisan Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) and firearm-surrender reforms in 2025, alongside expanded protections for sexual-assault survivors, including longer time limits to file charges. None have yet passed, but the shift toward prevention and survivor rights represents an important reframing of women’s safety policy in Wisconsin.

Voting & Civic Participation

Two court rulings in 2024 positively impacted voter access: ballot drop boxes were reinstated statewide, and new legislative maps replaced years of partisan gerrymandering—both expanding fair representation. At the same time, a constitutional amendment requiring voter ID was passed in April 2025, cementing an existing law that critics say may disproportionately affect women, students, and older voters.

Education

The WIAA’s 2025 policy limiting girls’ sports participation to students assigned female at birth and the UW System’s ongoing DEI audits highlight competing visions of equity. Both actions—driven largely by Republican policy priorities—mark a retreat from inclusion-focused approaches that had broadened access for women and underrepresented groups in schools and universities.