Scott Walker’s Latest Anti-Women, Anti-Worker Attacks Are Now Law

Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker on Good Friday night signed several evil anti-women, anti-worker, and even anti-children bills into law. The bills include a repeal of workers’ rights to sue, a bill mandating only abstinence-only sex education, a law that places new state limits on abortion.

The mere fact that Walker signed these bills into law quietly, late on Good Friday, as the holiday weekend had already begun, speaks volumes.

“Gov. Scott Walker signed into law dozens of bills this week, including the repeal of a law allowing workers to sue employers over discrimination, new limits on abortion, and a requirement that public schools teach abstinence as the only reliable way to prevent pregnancy,” the Kenosha News reports:

Democratic lawmakers, including Rep Peter Barca of Kenosha, criticized four of the bills signed as “attacks on women’s health” and workplace equality, and criticized the announcement on Good Friday when government offices and many businesses were closed.

Barca, the Assembly minority leader, said Walker was expected to sign the abstinence education bill, along with legislation creating new abortion restrictions. However, he said, he was not sure the governor would sign the bill repealing a 2010 law that allowed workers to seek punitive damages in court if they believed they were victims of discrimination in the workplace.

Under current state law, employees who prevail in discrimination lawsuits can collect between $50,000 and $300,000 in compensatory and punitive damages. The Republican bill blocks anyone from collecting such damages in employment discrimination suits.

The state Department of Workforce Development could still award an employee back pay, costs and attorney fees, however. Democrats said the bill hurts women who might suffer discrimination in the workplace.

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Bills signed into law include new rules for the way sex education is taught in public schools, including a provision that teens be taught that abstinence is the “only reliable way” to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. It also gives school districts the ability to focus on abstinence-only curriculum, previously barred under state law.

The abstinence legislation “streamlines” existing law by repealing language that requires sex education programs be “evidence based teen pregnancy prevention programs that have been proven through rigorous evaluation to delay sexual activity, increase contraceptive use, and reduce teen pregnancy.” It also changes language that previously required students to be told abstinence is “the most reliable way” to prevent pregnancy, instead requiring schools to say abstinence is “the only reliable way.”

It also requires teens to be taught “the skills necessary to remain abstinent.”

Wisconsin Right to Life, Pro-Life Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Catholic Conference lobbied for the change, while a number of groups including the Wisconsin Public Health Association, the Wisconsin Medical Society, and the National Association of Social Workers lobbied against it.

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Another bill signed by Walker Thursday bans health care plans offered through exchanges in the state from covering abortion, except in cases where the pregnancy is the result of a sexual assault or incest that has been reported to the police or in cases when a doctor has found that pregnancy endangers the woman’s life.

No word on if the bill bans coverage of abortion during cases of rape.

Image by Megan McCormick