MADISON – In reaction to the Assembly Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety’s passage of Assembly Bill 305, banning future medical research into life-saving treatments and therapies, Representative LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) released the following statement:
“Assembly Republicans’ haplessness would be amusing if it wasn’t deadly serious for Wisconsin. Our biomedical industry is nationally recognized for its disease-fighting breakthroughs. Its companies and research institutions contribute thousands of high-paying jobs and billions of dollars to our state’s economy, attracting some of the most brilliant minds from across the globe, and if AB 305 becomes law, we’ll be sending a clear a signal to inventors of life-saving cures—KEEP OUT.
The authors seem to have confused cause and effect. Women are not seeking to have an abortion because of medical research, they’re exercising their freedom to make their most personal and difficult healthcare decisions because they have a constitutionally protected right to privacy, which includes protection from government intrusion into their bodies. And until the U.S. Supreme Court says otherwise, this bill is nothing more than a costly temper tantrum.
In their misguided attempt to score a win for radical anti-abortion special interests, the bill’s supporters are resigning Wisconsin to intellectual backwater status — driving away talent, investment, and the jobs of the future. Given their abysmal record on the economy over the past five years, you would think Wisconsin Republicans would avoid playing with economic fire, but it appears that as long as they are calling the shots, there will be no stopping our state’s descent into 21st Century irrelevance.”
