Wisconsin election results : In advance of an expected abortion ruling, the conservatives lose control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

The outcome of Tuesday's contest between liberal Janet Protasiewicz and conservative Dan Kelly established the composition and partisan tilt of a court that would be asked to rule on an appeal of the state's 1849 abortion prohibition.

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Decision Desk HQ predicted that liberal judge Janet Protasiewicz would defeat conservative Dan Kelly in a crucial race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. This would shift the partisan balance of the influential court away from conservatives and raise the possibility that it would invalidate the state's 1849 ban on abortion.

The technically nonpartisan battle to succeed conservative Justice Patience Roggensack on the high court, which is currently 4-3 in favour of conservatives, included Protasiewicz and Kelly, a former justice. 

With Protasiewicz's victory, liberals have made yet another big inroad into Wisconsin's state government, which has long been dominated by conservatives.

Additionally, it guarantees that democracy will always win out.

A number of important problems, including abortion, have been brought before the courts as a result of the state's ongoing legislative dysfunction and paralysis, which analysts attribute to the Republicans' partisan manipulation of the state's political boundaries. 

The state's 1849 abortion ban, which was reinstated in June after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, is likely to be challenged before the high court.

Protasiewicz declared in her lone debate with Kelly in late March that "in my personal opinion, a woman's right to make a reproductive health decision, period," should be guaranteed. If Kelly were elected, she said, she could state with "100% assurance that the 1849 abortion ban will stay on the books."

Josh Kaul, the Democratic Attorney General, filed a lawsuit last year disputing the legality of the statute. The lawsuit contends that the state legislature's 1980s abortion restrictions supersede the 1849 ban and that the 1849 ban should be invalidated because it has not been implemented since the 1973 Roe decision.

Abortion providers and supporters from all throughout the state outlined the ban's risks in the final weeks of the contest. 

Doctors lamented their inability to offer a full spectrum of reproductive care and expressed their dissatisfaction and despair. Patients have few options, and some travel to other states for abortions. 

Also, several OBGYN-focused medical students are thinking about completing their residency outside of the state.The 1849 prohibition itself as well as the "ugly political environment" in the state caused Dr. Kristin Lyerly, an OBGYN from Green Bay and member of the Committee To Defend Health Care, to leave Wisconsin and practise in Minnesota instead.