MADISON, Wisconsin (LifeSiteNews) – Wisconsin Democrat Gov. Tony Evers signed legislation into law Friday expanding the window of the state’s safe haven law in a rare pro-life outcome from an avowed pro-abortion governor.

Assembly Bill 237, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 94, expands the time frame in which mothers can surrender their babies to a designated safe haven location from 72 hours after birth to 30 days and requires the creation of relevant informational materials about mothers’ rights and options under the law. It also amends and clarifies notification requirements and other child welfare rules pertaining to Native American children and tribes.

Under Wisconsin’s safe haven rules, mothers can anonymously surrender their baby to any law enforcement officer, emergency medical services worker, hospital staffer, or Safe Haven Baby Box (of which Wisconsin currently has seven). All 50 states have some form of safe haven provisions, the details of which can be found through the National Safe Haven Alliance website. More information about Safe Haven Baby Boxes, including locations across the country, can be found here.

“We applaud the expansion of Wisconsin’s Safe Haven law,” responded Heather Weininger, executive director of Wisconsin Right to Life. “Safe Haven laws provide a compassionate option in moments of crisis. By extending this window to 30 days, Wisconsin is strengthening protections for vulnerable infants and giving parents more time to choose a safe and loving future for their child.”

“Pro-Life Wisconsin would like to thank the authors of the bill, Senator Rob Hutton and Representative Rick Gundrum, for their leadership on this commonsense legislation that makes Wisconsin’s Safe Haven Law even better,” Pro-Life Wisconsin state director Dan Miller added. “We also thank Governor Evers for his consistent support of the Safe Haven Law and for signing Act 94. This new law will save lives while giving parents experiencing an unplanned pregnancy options everyone can live with.”

As the measure did not directly implicate abortion, it did not run afoul of the strong fealty Evers has shown to the abortion lobby.

Shortly after the 2022 fall of Roe v. Wade, the governor threatened to give clemency to any abortionist prosecuted under the state’s 1849 abortion ban, and Democrat Attorney General Josh Kaul said he would not prosecute anyone who violates it, claiming that more recent abortion laws effectively nullified it (despite the legislature never repealing it).

But the threat of the law being enforced by lower levels of government still led Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin to suspend abortions until the legal landscape changed. It also filed a legal challenge to the law, claiming that modern state laws effectively canceled it out and that it was too old to have the consent of current Wisconsinites (a premise that, if adopted, would have drastic ramifications for all corners of U.S. law). The Wisconsin Supreme Court sided 4-3 with the abortion lobby in July 2025, striking down the law.