Teton County District Court Judge Melissa Owens presides in Teton County District Court, Friday, June 2, 2023, in Jackson, Wyo., during a hearing regarding Wyoming’s bans on abortions. (Bradly J. Boner/Jackson Hole News & Guide via AP, Pool)
A state judge in Wyoming struck down the first state law specifically banning the use of abortion pills as well as the state’s restrictive abortion law Monday, finding that both laws violated the state’s constitution.
Teton County District Court Judge Melissa Owens granted a permanent injunction Monday blocking the “Life is a Human Right Act” as well as a medical abortion ban passed by Wyoming legislators in the 2023 session. Together, the laws ban abortion with limited exceptions and ban abortion medication.
The challengers to the laws were a group women, health care professionals, and nonprofit organizations. One of the plaintiff groups, Wellspring Health Access, opened as the state’s first full-service abortion clinic in April 2023 following an arson attack in 2022. The plaintiffs argued that the abortion bans posed a risk to their health, well-being, and livelihoods and violated a 2012 state constitutional amendment guaranteeing Wyoming residents the right to make their own health care decision.
Owens temporarily halted enforcement of the two abortion bans in prior rulings, but her decision Monday permanently blocks the laws. Wyoming, however is expected to appeal Owens’s ruling.
Owens leaned on Wyoming’s history in her 35-page ruling.
“From its earliest territorial days and at the advent of its statehood, Wyoming set itself apart by committing to the principle that its laws applied equally to both men and women.” Owens wrote.
“Wyoming was designated as a Territory of the United States in 1869 and gained statehood on July 10, 1890,” she continued and reminded, “As the first state in the history of the United States to give women the right to vote and hold office, it quickly became known as the ‘Equality State.””
Owens noted that during Wyoming’s entire history as a state, and even during its days as a territory, abortion regulations have always included exceptions to protect the health of a pregnant woman — even at times when Wyoming was the only place to do so.
Owens ruled that 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,” and, “impede the fundamental right to make health care decisions for an entire class of people, pregnant women.”
“This is a wonderful day for the citizens of Wyoming — and women everywhere who should have control over their own bodies,” Wellspring Health Access President Julie Burkhart said in a statement.
You can read the full ruling here.
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