LETTER: With women’s health rights at stake, vote for Protasiewicz

To Ozaukee Press:

I am a Catholic woman. Personally, I am not pro-abortion and yet I believe it is not my place to decide whether any woman can or cannot have this option. I believe this is a private and personal decision for each woman to make according to her circumstances. The only path I can see for Wisconsin to restore this right is through the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

There are four candidates for the Supreme Court in the Feb. 21 primary election. We may vote for one. The two highest vote winners in the primary will face each other in April 4 election for a 10-year term.

Two of the candidates are in favor of the 1849 abortion ban that we currently live under since the U.S. Supreme Court decision. Two other candidates believe in

a woman’s right to choose and have extensive judicial experience. They are Dane County Judge Everett Mitchell and Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz.

Protasiewicz received her law degree from Marquette University and presides over a branch of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court. Judge Mitchell received his law degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and presides over a juvenile division in Dane County. The other two candidates both went to a conservative religious law school in Virginia founded by evangelical and televangelist Pat Robertson. Both candidates are extreme.

This nonpartisan election is crucial to women’s rights to their reproductive needs, including medically necessary abortion. I ask you to vote for Judge Janet Protasiewicz, as I believe she is the strongest candidate, and this election is crucial.

Deborah Anderson

Port Washington