Wisconsin’s most powerful Republican took to a podium with a sign reading “Pro-Women, Pro-Babies, Pro-Life Caucus.”
“One of the reasons I ran for office was to protect the lives of unborn children,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told a cheering crowd in the state Capitol’s ornate Rotunda. One day in June 2019, they watched him sign four anti-abortion bills and were there to urge the state’s Democratic governor to sign them. (The governor did not.)
“Legislative Republicans are committed to protecting the unborn because we know that life is the most basic human right,” Vos promised. “We will continue to do everything in our power to protect unborn children and protect innocent lives.”
But now Vos has broken with some in the national anti-abortion movement who want a special measure to save life: the lives of new mothers.
Many anti-abortion Republicans support new state laws and policies that would extend Medicaid coverage for women from 60 days after giving birth to one year. Supporters argue that the promise of long-term free health care can help persuade women in financial crisis to proceed with their pregnancies rather than opting for an abortion. And many medical experts point out that the first year after giving birth is a precarious time for mothers, who can suffer from many complications, both physical and psychological.
Forty-eight other states (red, blue, and purple) have passed bills that would extend government-provided health insurance for low-income new moms for up to one year. That’s not the case in Arkansas, where many officials are holding back. In Wisconsin, the limit remains at two months. That’s all thanks to Voss.
The Wisconsin Senate passed a bill earlier this year that would extend Medicaid postpartum coverage to 12 months. The bill is co-sponsored by 30 Republicans in the state Legislature, giving it more than enough bipartisan support to pass in the Legislature.
But Vos, who has been speaker for nearly 13 years and whose campaign finance decisions are seen as key to winning elections, controls the chamber. And Capitol insiders say he hasn’t allowed the Senate or House bills to come to a vote, burying them deep within a barely-convened committee on regulatory licensing reform.
Vos’ resistance has put him and some of his anti-abortion colleagues in the strange position of having to reconcile support for growing families with Congress’s failure to pass legislation to help new moms stay healthy.
“If we can’t get something like this done, I don’t know what we’re doing in Congress,” Republican Rep. Patrick Snyder, the bill’s author and an ardent opponent of abortion, said during a Senate hearing in February.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos attended a 2019 rally in the Wisconsin State Capitol Rotunda to urge Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to sign four anti-abortion bills. “One of the reasons I ran was to protect the lives of unborn children,” Vos told the audience. Scott Bauer/AP Photo
Vos declined to discuss the matter with ProPublica by phone, referring questions to a spokesperson, who did not respond to calls or emails. Vos once explained his opposition by saying, “Wisconsin already has enough welfare.” He vowed never to expand Medicaid and said states should limit the program to only “those who truly need it.”
His stance on extending benefits for new mothers has worried medical experts, social workers and some voters. They argue with him, plead with him, and in some cases question his principles. ProPublica reached out to his office for public comment from January 2024 to June 2025 and found that the overwhelming majority of about 200 messages opposed his position.
“I know many of my Republican colleagues support this. As a ‘party of families,’ your opposition is abhorrent. Stop it,” one Wisconsin resident told the speaker via a contact form on Vos’ website.
Another person who contacted Vos accused him of making “poor excuses,” writing, “Wisconsin women deserve more from a party that claims to be ‘pro-life’ but actually doesn’t care much about women and children. We deserve better than you.”
“Common sense bill”
Donna Rother is a Wisconsin Republican who firmly opposes abortion but also supports Medicaid for new mothers.
While serving in the state Legislature in 2023, she sponsored a bill that would extend coverage for up to one year. Her efforts mirrored what was happening in other states after the end of Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to abortion. Activists on both sides of the abortion issue recognized the potential for an increase in high-risk births and sought to protect mothers.
“I saw this as an anti-Life bill that would give mothers up to a year of coverage to let them know that they have the help they need if they have postpartum complications with their pregnancy,” said Rosal, a retired nurse. “I thought it was a common sense bill.”
Vos will not allow the bill to come to a vote, even though it has 66 co-sponsors in the 99-person chamber, she said. “The speaker of the Wisconsin Legislature is a very powerful person and sets the agenda,” she said.
Rosal recalled having many “frustrating” conversations with Vos trying to convince him to move forward with the bill. “He was very opposed to entitlement programs and additional spending on Medicaid, so he stayed true to those principles.”
Vos also argues that Wisconsinites could have found insurance through other options, including the Affordable Care Act. Some new mothers are eligible for free coverage under certain ACA plans, but not all are. Even if the coverage is free, ACA plans usually require a deductible or copayment. And next year, the enhanced premium tax credit is set to expire, and unless Congress changes it, few people will qualify for $0 in net premiums.
Republican former state Rep. Donna Rosal, who supported a 2023 bill to expand Medicaid coverage for mothers, said Vos would not even allow a vote on her bill. Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/Imagn
Rosal lost her re-election bid in August 2024 after redistricting, but returned to the state Capitol in February for a Senate hearing and continued to push for an extension. She was joined by a variety of medical experts who explained the extreme and life-threatening risks that women can face during the first year after giving birth.
They warned that without expanded Medicaid coverage, women who need treatment or medication for postpartum depression, drug addiction, high blood pressure, diabetes, blood clots, heart disease and other conditions could be unable to receive those treatments.
One legal analysis found that in Wisconsin, an average of 700 women are no longer eligible for Medicaid each month two months after giving birth or miscarriage because they no longer meet income eligibility rules.
Dane County community health worker Justine Brown Shabell told senators about a new mother who was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and lost her Medicaid coverage.
“She could no longer afford her diabetes medication. This affected not only her health, but also the health of her infant. With her breast milk supply reduced, she was unable to properly nourish her child,” Brown-Shabel said.
She described another new mother who had severe postpartum depression, loss of appetite, significant weight loss, insomnia, and mental fatigue. Brown-Shabel said 60 days of Medicaid coverage is “completely inadequate” in this situation.
If you need help with postpartum depression, call or text the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline at 1-833-TLC-MAMA.
Currently, new mothers with household incomes up to 306% of the poverty line ($64,719 per year for a single mother and her baby) can continue to receive Medicaid for the first 60 days of life. But to continue coverage beyond that, the mother must be below the poverty line ($21,150 for mother and baby). The new law would extend current protection to one year.
Bipartisan solidarity against the bill is strong, with Pro-Life Wisconsin and the lobbying arm of Planned Parenthood, an abortion provider that provides some postpartum services, both voting in support of the bill in the Senate.
“This is something we can do, and it’s achievable with bipartisan support,” Matt Sande, lobbyist for Pro-Life Wisconsin, said in an interview. “It’s not going to be a lot of money.”
If fully implemented, the expanded coverage would cost the state $9.4 million annually, according to the state Legislative Fiscal Service. The state ended fiscal year 2025 with a $4.6 billion budget surplus.
With the House bill dead by Vos, Democratic Rep. Robin Vining tried to force the issue through a small legislative last resort in July. She stood up during a floor debate on the state budget and proposed adding a Medicaid extension to the massive spending bill.
All Republicans who signed the Medicaid bill voted in favor of the proposal, except one absentee, and the amendment failed. That includes the bill’s sponsor, Snyder, who in an email to ProPublica called Democrats’ move to raise the issue in a floor debate a “stunt.”
“Democrats were simply more interested in playing politics to get a story about who voted against what than they were in supporting the budget that the governor had negotiated,” he said.
“Instead of representing their constituents, they are receiving marching orders from the speaker,” said Vining, a Republican who introduced the amendment.
well-funded opposition party
Vos’ opposition echoes that of influential conservative groups such as the Government Accountability Foundation, a Florida think tank that promotes “jobs over welfare.” The company’s lobbying arm publicly opposed extending Medicaid for new moms when it was first floated in Wisconsin in 2021, but has not expressed opposition since. Contacted recently, a foundation spokesperson declined to comment.
Over the past decade, the foundation has received more than $11 million from a philanthropic fund run by billionaire Richard Uihlein, founder of Wisconsin-based transportation supply company Uihlein. In recent years, Uihlein and his wife, Liz, have also been significant political donors across the country and in the Midwest, and Vos is among their beneficiaries.
Since 2020, Liz Uihlein has donated more than $6 million to the Wisconsin Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, which is seen as a key instrument of Vos’ power. And in February 2024, she donated $500,000 to Vos’s personal political campaign at a time when he was embroiled in intense internal party skirmishes.
One concern raised by opponents of the extension, including the Government Accountability Foundation, is that Medicaid coverage for new mothers could be used for health issues not directly related to childbirth. Questions about how much coverage would be expanded sparked debate in an Arkansas state Senate committee in April.
“Can you explain what that coverage is? Is it like full Medicaid for the problems you’re having, or is it somehow specific to pregnancy and complications?” asked Republican Sen. John Payton.
State health officials told him that new mothers would receive all benefits.
“For example, if I needed a knee replacement, does that mean that would cover it?” Peyton said.
“Yes,” came the reply.
The bill was defeated by voice vote.
In Wisconsin, not a single lawmaker raised such concerns during a Senate hearing in February, only positive comments stood out. In fact, one lawmaker and several medical experts in attendance openly mocked the possibility that Arkansas, which ranks low on public health metrics, would pass the bill before Wisconsin and be the only holdout.
In the end, the Wisconsin Senate passed the bill 32-1 in April, but the bill was sent to the Legislature and stalled, leaving Wisconsin tied up in the issue with Arkansas.
Despite the setbacks and Vos’ staunch opposition, Sande and other anti-abortion activists at Pro-Life Wisconsin are not giving up. He believes he can convince Vos and the bill could emerge from purgatory this winter.
“We want to say we have hope,” Sande said.
Lozar is also well aware of Vos’s unwavering stance. “If I had left it alone, I could have gotten egg on my face,” she says.
