Wyoming Supreme Court Strikes Down Two Abortion Ban Laws

Wyoming’s Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that two laws banning abortion, including the first U.S. moratorium on abortion pills, violated the state constitution.

“A woman has a fundamental right to make her own health care decisions, including the decision to have an abortion,” the ruling states.

The 4-1 ruling from the slate of Republican-appointed judges upheld every previous lower court ruling that the abortion bans violated the state constitution, siding with the state’s only abortion clinic and advocates that sued when the bans passed in 2022.

“The State did not meet its burden of demonstrating the Abortion Laws further the compelling interest of protecting unborn life without unduly infringing upon the woman’s fundamental right to make her own health care decisions,” the ruling continued. “As such, the Abortion Laws do not constitute reasonable and necessary restrictions on a pregnant woman’s right to make her own health care decisions.”

One law overturned on Tuesday sought to ban abortion, with the only exception to protect a woman’s life or in cases involving rape or incest. The other was an explicit ban on abortion pills, the first of its kind in the U.S.

Wellspring Health Access, the abortion access advocacy group, and four women, including two obstetricians, brought the original case and argued the laws violated a state constitutional amendment ensuring competent adults have the right to make their own health care decisions.

The constitutional amendment regarding personal health passed in 2012 in response to the introduction of the Affordable Care Act.

Justice John Fenn concluded that the “state failed to prove the 2023 laws were ‘reasonable and necessary restrictions’ on the right to make one’s own health care decisions.”

Wellspring Health Access’ president, Julie Burkhart, said in a statement that their “clinic will remain open and ready to provide compassionate reproductive health care, including abortions, and our patients in Wyoming will be able to obtain this care without having to travel out of state.”

Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, said in a statement that the court ruling was a disappointment and called on state lawmakers to pass a constitutional amendment banning abortion that would go before voters this fall.

“This ruling may settle, for now, a legal question, but it does not settle the moral one, nor does it reflect where many Wyoming citizens stand, including myself. It is time for this issue to go before the people for a vote,” Gordon said.