Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul have filed a lawsuit seeking to block the state's 173-year-old ban on abortions, asking a state court to declare the law unenforceable, ABC 7 Chicago reported.
In 1849, Wisconsin started banning doctors from performing abortions unless the mother's life is in danger.
The U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Roe vs. Wade decision invalidated the ban. However, the court's recent decision to overturn Roe has created questions about whether the ban is in effect.
Kaul filed a lawsuit in Dane County court Tuesday arguing that a 1985 law that allows abortions up to the point of a fetus' viability supersedes the 1849 ban. He says that means abortions are still legal in Wisconsin before that point in a pregnancy.
Evers has also vowed to grant clemency to anyone charged under the abortion ban, if it were to be enforced.