A court in Wyoming decided on Monday that two laws that restrict and outlaw abortion in the state are unconstitutional, temporarily legalizing the procedure until fetal viability.
The state constitution, which states that everyone has the right to personal autonomy in making medical decisions, was violated by the two state statutes, according to Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens, who issued an injunction against them.
Owens stated that the state “has enacted laws that impede the fundamental right to make health care decisions for an entire class of people, pregnant women,” in reference to the Life Act and the Medication Abortion Ban.
The state regulations, Owens said, restricted abortion from the very beginning of development and failed to distinguish between a zygote and a fetus, as well as between a viable and a previable fetus. Because the legislation imposed “unreasonable and unnecessary restrictions” on pregnant women’s autonomy to make their own health care decisions, Owens found that they were “facially unconstitutional.”
She wrote, “The Court concludes that the Abortion Statutes are not reasonable or necessary to protect the health and general welfare of the people and suspend a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions throughout the entire term of a pregnancy.”
The Wyoming Supreme Court may hear an appeal in this case. On Monday night, demands for comment were not immediately answered by the state attorney general’s office or the governor’s office.
After the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in 2022, Wyoming implemented a trigger ban and a nearly complete abortion ban in March 2023. This is the third time that Owens has banned the state’s abortion legislation.
Last year, Wellspring Health Access, one of the plaintiffs in the current lawsuit, became the last full-service abortion clinic in Wyoming. Weeks before the clinic’s original opening date in 2022, it was the victim of an arson assault.
The decision is the most recent blow to organizations opposed to abortion rights. In seven of the ten states where they were offered, ballot amendments guaranteeing abortion rights in state constitutions were approved during the 2024 election.
