The more likely it becomes that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) will run for president in 2016, the more awful things about his past come out. In 1997, when Walker was a Wisconsin state representative, he supported a bill that would allow pro-life doctors to lie to pregnant women about whether her unborn child would be born with disabilities, reported ThinkProgress.
The bill, AB 538, was a tactic conceived by Walker and supported by Wisconsin’s pro-life Republicans in an attempt to snuff abortion. Wisconsin Republicans thought that if a pregnant woman learned that her child would be born with a disability, she couldn’t be trusted not to get an abortion.
The easiest answer for Republicans was to pass a law that violates standard medical ethics. ThinkProgress reported that in 1997, “if a healthcare provider withheld information about a fetal disability while abortion was still an available option, they could be liable for the child’s future medical expenses.” That’s a pretty reasonable law, but Walker sought to change that.
Thankfully, AB 538 was killed in the state legislature and didn’t even receive a floor vote. It turns out that Walker was tampering with some serious ethical ground and went too far. Three years later, Walker resurrected the bill under the title AB 360. However, that bill was also killed by the state legislature.
Walker has tried to make the anti-abortion fight his life’s work. He’s introduced several pro-life bills to the Wisconsin state legislature over the course of his nine-year tenure as a state representative. These attempts failed.
Walker has the backing of the Koch brothers, should he run for president in 2016. Walker would be a dangerous and terrifying president if elected. It’s almost certain he won’t, however. But he is the enemy, and would create an evangelical government if he had the chance.
