Appeals court says GOP can’t join Wisconsin abortion lawsuit

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MILWAUKEE (AP) — A federal appeals court has affirmed a lower court ruling that Republican state lawmakers can’t intervene in a Planned Parenthood lawsuit challenging certain Wisconsin abortion restrictions.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Thursday’s ruling from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals leaves it up to Democratic state Attorney General John Kaul to defend Wisconsin’s abortion laws.

Republican lawmakers don’t trust Kaul because he has supported abortion rights before and was endorsed by Planned Parenthood last year.

The appeals court backed a ruling from federal Judge Willian Conley, who said Republicans hadn’t come close to showing that Kaul would shirk his duties.

Planned Parenthood is seeking to overturn laws that only allow doctors to perform abortions, that require women seeking medication-induced abortions to see the same doctor twice, and that require doctors to be present when such drugs are dispensed.