Wisconsin judge: Lawsuit to repeal abortion ban can continue

A judge has ruled that a lawsuit seeking to repeal Wisconsin's 174-year-old abortion ban can continue. The U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling had nullified the ban but the court's decision last year to overturn that landmark ruling reactivated it. The state's Democratic attorney general, Josh Kaul, filed a lawsuit arguing that the ban is too old to enforce and that a 1985 state law that outlaws post-viability abortions supersedes the ban. Joel Urmanski, a Republican prosecutor named as a defendant, asked Dane County Circuit Judge Diane Schlipper to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing Kaul lacks legal standing. Schlipper refused the request Friday, letting the case continue.