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• Posted November 19, 2024

Judge Declares Wyoming's Abortion Bans Unconstitutional

Two Wyoming abortion bans, including the first state law to prohibit the use of abortion pills, violate the state's constitution, a judge ruled Monday.

In her decision, Judge Melissa Owens, of Teton County District Court, wrote that both a ban on medication abortion and a broader ban on all methods of abortion “impede the fundamental right to make health care decisions for an entire class of people, pregnant women,” the New York Times reported.

“The abortion statutes suspend a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions during the entire term of a pregnancy and are not reasonable or necessary to protect the health and general welfare of the people,” Owens added in her ruling.

The decision blocks both laws permanently, although the state is expected to appeal the ruling, the Times reported. The state attorney general’s office and the governor’s office could not be reached for comment Monday night, the newspaper added.

What legal precedent did Owens turn to in making her decision?

An amendment to the state's constitution, sparked by concerns over the Affordable Care Act and approved by an overwhelming majority of the state’s voters in 2012, guarantees adults the right to make their own health care decisions, the Times reported.

Still, the state argued in court last year that even though doctors and other health providers must be involved in abortions, there were many instances in which abortion was not “health care” because “it’s not restoring the woman’s body from pain, physical disease or sickness,” the Times reported.

The state also argued that the 2012 constitutional amendment did not apply to abortion because terminating a pregnancy affected not just the woman making the decision, but the fetus as well.

However, Owens rejected both of those arguments soundly in her ruling.

“The state did not present any evidence refuting or challenging the extensive medical testimony presented by the plaintiffs,” she wrote.

Dr. Giovannina Anthony, an obstetrician-gynecologist and abortion provider who was one of the plaintiffs in the case, told the Times she was “grateful and relieved that the judge agreed that abortion is health care and that abortion bans violate the rights of pregnant women. This is not the end of the fight in Wyoming, but for now we can continue to provide evidence-based care without fear of a prison sentence.”

More information

The Guttmacher Institute has more on abortion bans.

SOURCE: New York Times