Wisconsin abortion provider explains what’s next for practices after state Supreme Court ruling
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- For several years, while Wisconsin's abortion law was in flux, providers stopped offering services and at least two of them moved their practices out of state.
After the state Supreme Court’s ruling, we talked with one of those doctors about how the decision will impact her practice.
Dr. Kristin Lyerly told us, "I am dedicated and very excited to be returning home."
Unable to provide abortion care in Wisconsin after the fall of Roe v Wade, Lyerly moved her practice to northern Minnesota, focusing on obstetrics in rural areas.
She said in Minnesota, she could focus solely on the care of her patients, not the law. "I took a moment, as I was on my way down to the operating room to save someone's life, to just think, 'what would I be doing in Wisconsin right now,' having to pause and wonder what the law would allow me to do."
In the three-plus years abortions were on hold, Wisconsin families had to travel out of state for services.
Lyerly said people who could not travel suffered and cited a Gender Equity Policy Institute study from April 2025 that said: "Mothers living in states that banned abortion nearly 2x as likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth, or soon after giving birth" compared to states where abortion was legal.
Lyerly attributes that to a lack of care for miscarriages, infertility issues, or complicated pregnancies.
The court's decision now returns the state to other restrictions that were previously in effect, which Lyerly and other abortion advocates say are still problematic. "It also means that all those restrictions that were there before Dobbs are still there. So, the 24-hour waiting period, the mandatory ultrasound, the script that is not medically accurate that I have to read my patient before I offer abortion care, all of those things are still there."
Lyerly says now hospitals and doctors will need time to figure out how to re-integrate abortion care into their services.