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A state judge on Monday struck down Wyoming's overall ban on abortion and its first-in-the-nation explicit prohibition on the use of medication to end pregnancy in line with voters in yet more states voicing support for abortion rights. Since 2022, Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens while they were disputed in court. The decision marks another victory for abortion rights advocates after voters in seven states passed measures in support of access, the reports.
The state can still appeal Owens' decision to the state Supreme Court, reports. One Wyoming law that Owens said violated women's rights under the state constitution bans abortion except to protect to a pregnant woman's life or in cases involving rape and incest. The other made Wyoming the only state to explicitly ban abortion pills, though other states have instituted de facto bans on the medication by broadly prohibiting abortion.
The laws were challenged by four women, including two obstetricians, and two nonprofit organizations. One of the groups, Wellspring Health Access, opened as the state's first full-service abortion clinic in years in April 2023 following an arson attack in 2022. The women and nonprofits who challenged the laws argued that the bans stood to harm their health, well-being and livelihoods, claims disputed by attorneys for the state.
They also argued the bans violated a 2012 state constitutional amendment saying competent Wyoming residents have a right to make their own health care decisions. As she had done with previous rulings, Owens found merit in both arguments. The abortion bans "will undermine the integrity of the medical profession by hamstringing the ability of physicians to provide evidence-based medicine to their patients," Owens ruled.
The abortion laws impede the fundamental right of women to make health care decisions for an entire class of people—those who are pregnant—in violation of the constitutional amendment, Owens ruled..
