A judge who previously worked for Planned Parenthood is running for a pivotal spot on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. 

Liberal Dane County Circuit Judge Susan Crawford announced her campaign on Monday in a race that will determine the ideological makeup of the state’s highest court. It currently has a 4-3 liberal majority, but Justice Ann Walsh Bradley announced her retirement in April putting control of the court up for grabs next year. 

Like many Democrats running for office this year, Crawford appears set to make abortion a key issue of her campaign. The Wisconsin Supreme Court election is in April 2025. 

“I am running for Supreme Court justice to protect the basic rights and freedoms of Wisconsinites under our constitution. Those rights are threatened by an all-out effort to politicize the court to drive a right-wing agenda – I believe Wisconsin deserves better,” she said in her campaign announcement. “For the first time in years, we have a majority on the court focused on getting the facts right, following the law, and protecting our constitutional rights. We can’t risk having that progress reversed.”

Crawford has extensive ties to Planned Parenthood and was working as the lawyer for the abortion giant’s Wisconsin branch when she ran for Dane County circuit judge in 2018.

In 2015, Crawford worked with attorneys from Planned Parenthood to convince a judge to permanently block a pro-life law that imposed restrictions on doctors who performed abortions. 

Abortion has been a major issue in Wisconsin after an 1849 law protecting unborn life went into effect when Roe v. Wade was overturned. The law is currently being challenged before the state Supreme Court and has been blocked from being enforced. 

In addition to challenging pro-life laws, Crawford has fought against voter ID requirements and Republican-backed public union reform laws. 

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Crawford’s opponent, conservative Waukesha County Circuit Judge Brad Schimel, said she “was handpicked by the leftist majority on the Supreme Court to cement their stranglehold for another three years.”

“While I was a frontline prosecutor in the courtroom defending crime victims and putting criminals behind bars, she was working for radical left-wing special interests groups that don’t share our values,” Schimel, previously Wisconsin’s attorney general, said. 

Liberals took over the Wisconsin Supreme Court in August after Judge Janet Protasiewicz began her 10-year term on the court. Just months later, the court struck down the state’s legislative maps, ruling that they were heavily gerrymandered and needed to be redrawn. The move is expected to favor Democrats.