Madison — Heating up his rhetoric on a frigid Monday, a Republican backer of two abortion bills tried to thaw out the frozen legislation by attacking Democrats and insisting he could still win over own party on the measures.
But though Sen. Glenn Grothman of West Bend traded sharp words Monday with Democratic opponents of the bills, his efforts produced no immediate movement on the proposals. The bills have passed the state Assembly but, with only three months remaining in the legislative session, they remain stuck in the state Senate controlled by Grothman's fellow Republicans.
An aide to Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) made clear Monday that the bills were not being taken up quickly and may not pass at all this session.
Dan Romportl, Fitzgerald's chief of staff, pointed to another proposal requiring abortion doctors to have hospital admitting privileges that passed the Legislature last summer and became law, only to be blocked by a federal judge in an ongoing lawsuit.
"I don't know that the support is necessarily there. Some GOP senators have expressed reservations about doing additional pro-life bills while the (admitting privileges) bill is tied up in court," Romportl said in an email Monday.
The first of the two bills would ban abortions that are chosen based on the sex of the fetus. The other would ban public workers' health plans from covering abortions and would exempt religious organizations from having to cover contraception in their employees' insurance plans.
A third proposal with a lower profile would create anti-abortion license plates. All three pieces of legislation have passed the Assembly, where Republicans have a commanding 60-39 majority, and are awaiting action in the Senate, where Democrats oppose the bills and Republicans have an 18-15 majority that gives them only one GOP vote to spare.
Senate Republicans had planned to take up the first two bills in November but backed off after Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) said bringing the bills to the floor would result in "all-out hell."
In a pair of interviews Monday, Grothman said the bills could pass but clarified that he wasn't disagreeing with Fitzgerald over whether the bills had Republican support. He said GOP senators are worried that the news media would make it seem that Republicans were fixated on social issues.
"We're both right," Grothman said of himself and Fitzgerald. "There are people (among the Senate Republicans) who don't want to vote on that issue...But if that bill comes to floor they'll all vote for it."
Grothman directed his anger Monday at outspoken Democratic opponents of the bills such as Erpenbach and Senate Minority Leader Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee), charging them with condoning sex-selective abortions as practiced in some Asian countries.
"If one would have told me, even 15 years ago, that it would become mainstream Democrat thinking to bring China's sex-selective abortion policies to our shores, I would have never believed them," he said.
Larson dismissed Grothman's criticisms as baseless.
"They're focusing on make-believe problems when we have plenty of real problems that aren't being addressed," Larson said of Republicans.
In a statement, Erpenbach declined to comment on most of Grothman's assertions, calling them "ridiculous."
"As for the process, he should direct his frustration to those that actually schedule bills for floor: Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and Senate President Mike Ellis," Erpenbach said.
Julaine Appling, head of Wisconsin Family Action, said she believed the bills had enough GOP votes to pass but didn't provide a vote count.
"We're hopeful that the Senate leadership will get them through the legislative process and get them to the governor in a timely fashion," Appling said.
Appling said she believes Walker would sign the bills but had no comment on how hard the GOP governor is pushing for the legislation.
Walker has said repeatedly that the abortion bills are not his priority, and spokesman Tom Evenson repeated that Monday.
"Governor Walker's focus will continue to be on job creation, worker training and economic development." Evenson said.
For her part, √Jenni Dye, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin, made clear her group would continue to make stopping the bills a priority.
"If Senator Grothman is sincerely interested in addressing discrimination, he should be supporting policies that unify — not divide — our state, without taking away any woman's right to make her own personal, private medical decisions," she said Monday
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