“Ride to Decide” National Bus Tour Arrives in Milwaukee to Highlight Harms of Abortion Bans as Extremists at RNC Attempt to Distance Themselves from Shameful Record on Reproductive Freedom
MILWAUKEE, WI –– Today, health care providers, patient advocates, religious leaders, and local community members joined Free & Just’s “Ride to Decide” national bus tour event in Milwaukee to set the record straight as conservatives at the Republican National Convention attempt to distance themselves from their long and shameful record of attacking access to abortion and reproductive health care. Speakers at the event also highlighted what’s at stake for Wisconsinites and people across the country as extremists work to ban abortion nationwide.
The Ride to Decide bus tour comes as attacks on reproductive freedom escalate across the country. Support for legal abortion has increased since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, but that hasn’t stopped anti-abortion extremists and conservative lawmakers from continuing to undermine Americans’ access to abortion care, birth control, and IVF treatment.
At the event, local patient storytellers, health care providers, and community members shared how attacks on reproductive freedom harm women and families in Wisconsin and across the country.
Speaking about the landscape after the fall of Roe, Alenna Beroza, a medical student in Milwaukee said, “The ever-changing legal landscapes have shifted the focus of medical institutions and physicians to understanding and abiding by complicated laws, rather than focusing on what matters most – patient care and medical education,” and added that, “these laws have made people confused and scared, from patients to providers. People do not know what they can share with their doctor or where to turn.”
“One thing I learned in all of those clinics and in every congregation I have pastored is that people – whether they are Baptist or Catholic or Pentecostal or Hindu or Jewish or Muslim – they all get abortions. And they all use birth control. So stop lying to yourselves and thinking that a law that is passed will change anyone’s values. They do not change people’s values,” said Rev. Denise Cawley, a Unitarian Universalist Minister and a former Chaplain at Planned Parenthood. “We need to stop pretending there’s only on faith and one belief out there that should be allowed to influence health care, or your body, or if you use IVF, or what happens if you have a miscarriage or a pregnancy that’s unsafe or a body that doesn’t fit into the standard binaries of gender.”
“Abortion bans traumatize women. Lasting bodily damage occurs and women die. But physicians suffer as well,” said Dr. Callie Cox Bauer, an OBGYN from Milwaukee. “We know what care is needed, and we know that it is illegal to give it, and we are forced to watch people suffer for fear of being charged with a felony and possibly losing our medical license, because of policies made by white men that will never sit in our exam rooms or with our patients. They will never hear the cry of the mother whose baby has no brain, the patient that was raped, the mother that has 5 kids at home in an abusive relationship, or the teen that has big dreams to elevate out of poverty, or the little girl that was forced into sex work. They will never sit there with me and tell them they can try to get out of the state, or they must continue the pregnancy.”
“I’m angry because only one hospital in Wisconsin would offer the termination procedure for me to give Connor the grace of a painless death and a life that only felt love,” said Gracie Ladd, a nurse from Nashotah who was forced to travel out of state for abortion care when she learned that her son, Connor, was developing without a bladder or functioning kidneys, and had several serious heart defects that meant he would not survive more than a few minutes if she carried the pregnancy to term. “I’m angry because there is no guarantee in this state that I would not be labeled a murderer for making the compassionate choice. But mostly, I’m angry that people who weren’t in that ultrasound room with me while I received the news that tore my world apart got to decide whether or not I should be allowed to make this medical decision for myself.”
“Extremist lawmakers seek to enshrine into state or federal law one narrow religious belief that violates my First Amendment rights to follow and to impart to my community the teachings of Jewish law and tradition,” said Rabbi Bonnie Margulis, the Executive Director of Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice and former chair of the Wisconsin Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. “The extremists’ goals are laid bare in Project 2025, which would empower an authoritarian executive branch to enact broad restrictions on abortion and contraception access, among other extreme and dangerous proposals. Don’t let efforts to downplay this fool you, this is their goal.”
“While this is a deeply personal issue for me, I am also professionally aware of the disparate effect that this type of legislation has on already vulnerable populations,” said Dr. Laura Swoboda, a nurse practitioner based in Milwaukee who had an abortion herself. “Affluent Wisconsinites will still have access to travel to states where they can receive care, while those unable to afford this cost or the social and professional conflicts this creates are forced into situations against their will. These barriers to accessing care have been intentionally designed, not to protect the health of anyone but simply to prevent their access to healthcare.”
Next week, the “Ride to Decide” tour will travel through Texas, where local storytellers will spotlight the real-life impacts of abortion bans and attacks on reproductive freedom and share why federal action to protect access to abortion and reproductive health care has never been more important.
You can watch the event here. If you would like photos from the event or are interested in speaking with any of the participants in the press event, please contact kelly@freeandjust.us.
Free & Just is committed to fighting for reproductive freedom. Join us in sharing stories, raising voices, and securing our future.
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Free & Just is fighting to stop attacks on reproductive freedom and rights. We’re working with people across the country to share real stories to show the devastating consequences of attacks on our reproductive freedom. We all deserve the right to control our bodies and lives. That’s why we’re sharing our stories, raising our voices, and fighting for our future.