Governor Tony Evers at the Marathon County library. MWC photo by Mike Leischner
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — Governor Tony Evers says there are no ill intentions behind the removal of words like “mother” and “father” in his proposed state budget.
“What we want is legal certainty that moms will be able to get the care they need,” said Evers. “That’s it, end of story.”
The comments came in response to outrage over Section 3106 of the proposal, which shows terms such as wife, husband, mother, and father crossed out and replaced with terms like spouse, person, and inseminated person. Gov. Evers spoke about the term changes in the bill during a visit to the Marathon County Public Library on Monday and stated that the proposed changes would only apply to IVF procedures being done in the state and would ensure that care is properly applied to patients. The governor did not provide specific details on how the removal of the terms would expand access to the treatment or what legal barriers concerned him.
IVF otherwise known as “In vitro fertilization” is a process that the Cleveland Clinic describes as involves retrieving eggs from the ovaries, fertilizing them with sperm in a laboratory, and then transferring the resulting embryos back into the uterus. The procedure varies in price nationwide starting at as low as $12,000 and as much as $30,000.
The Governor also accused Republicans of lying about the proposal. “It’s really unfortunate that we are in this position. All we want is to make sure things have been taken care of legally. So moms can have a year of [care] from an OB/GYN, end of story.”
“It gives people using IVF legal certainty. That’s it,” said Evers. “Moms are moms. Dads are dads. What we want is legal certainty.”
The Democrat went on to say Republicans may be looking for an advantage when they are under attack. When asked if he would support putting those protections in a stand-alone bill, he said that could be an option. “Maybe that would make it easier for Republicans to not lie about it.”
A spokesperson for the Governor noted that similar bills have been proposed in the past but failed to gain traction.
WSAU’s Tom Schumacher contributed to this story
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