(LifeSiteNews) – No longer content with simply advocating for the industry, Wisconsin Democrats hope to send an actual abortionist to Congress, with the candidacy of Dr. Kristin Lyerly to fill the House of Representatives seat vacated by Rep. Mike Gallagher.
Gallagher announced in March that he would resign in April rather than waiting for his term to expire, leaving the seat currently vacant. Republicans nominated businessman Tony Wied to replace him in the November elections.
Running against Wied on the Democrat side is Lyerly, an OB-GYN who commits abortions, has worked for Planned Parenthood, and is currently involved in a legal dispute over Wisconsin’s pre-Roe v. Wade abortion ban, which the Wisconsin Supreme Court is slated to begin hearing in October.
“I was the only physician who performed abortions in Sheboygan,” the county whose District Attorney Joel Urmanski is fighting to enforce the pro-life law, she told MedPage Today. Currently, “I don’t practice in Wisconsin because I know that my practice, my license, my livelihood, are under threat. So I actually practice in rural Minnesota, delivering babies and providing general ob/gyn care.”
Lyerly claimed she has always had a “strong streak of justice that is just part of who I am,” a “beacon about what I thought was right and what was worth fighting for. As I was making my way through the early days of my career, that justice piece was so important to me and so badly needed in obstetrics and gynecology.”
She said that during the outbreak of COVID-19 she decided that “advocacy wasn’t enough,” so she ran unsuccessfully for the Wisconsin Legislature in 2020, through which she got involved in the so-called “Fair Maps” movement to redraw legislative districts in ways more favorable to Democrats. Now she hopes to become “the first pro-choice ob/gyn doctor elected to Congress.”
If elected, Lyerly said she wants to work on Medicaid expansion, federal laws forcing states to allow abortion, contraception, and in vitro fertilization, and “mak(ing) sure that every single person in this country has access to quality, affordable healthcare” like “they do it in other countries.”
She hedged, however, when asked to clarify if that last point meant single-payer (i.e., socialized) medicine.
“I think it’s complicated. There is no magic bullet here, Medicare for All is an easy way for people to talk about ensuring that everybody has access to healthcare, but Medicare itself is really broken,” she said. “Medicare now is making it really difficult for rural hospitals to continue to provide care, and I see that in my own practice, so I’m reluctant to sign on as someone who is a firm supporter of Medicare for all. I think it’s a good start, but I think that there is much more work that needs to be done.”
Lyerly concluded the MedPage interview with a message to doctors: “The more we can get physician voices out there — physicians have a role here to play, and it’s a really unique role — the more we’re going to be able to fix our healthcare system, and ultimately, that’s the goal.”
Democrats have made abortion a key part of their 2024 message, hopeful that stoking fear of pro-life laws will drive left-wing turnout. Flipping Gallagher’s old seat may be a tall order, however; the Republican won his most recent reelection by 72.2%, with Democrats not even putting up a challenger.
While the presidential race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris remains extremely close, polling aggregation service RaceToTheWH projects that Democrats will flip the House of Representatives and Republicans flip the Senate.