A Wyoming judge ruled Monday that two state laws restricting and banning abortion are unconstitutional. legalization of the procedure until fetal viability.
Teton County Circuit Judge Melissa Owens issued an injunction against the two state laws in a ruling that said they conflicted with the state constitution, which says every person has the right to personal autonomy in making medical decisions.
Owens wrote that with the two laws — the Life Act and the Medication Abortion Ban — the state “enacted laws that impede an entire class of pregnant women’s fundamental right to make health care decisions.”
Owens added that state laws restrict abortion from the earliest stages of development, do not distinguish between a zygote and a fetus, and do not distinguish between a preterm and a viable fetus. Owens argued that the laws were “facially unconstitutional” because they placed “unreasonable and unnecessary restrictions” on pregnant women’s right to make their own health care decisions.
“The Court concludes that the Abortion Ordinance suspends a woman’s right to make her own health decisions throughout pregnancy and is not reasonable or necessary to protect the health and general welfare of the people,” he wrote.
The case may be appealed to the Wyoming Supreme Court.
The governor’s office and the state attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday night.
Wyoming will end its abortion ban in March 2023, as well as the US Supreme Court’s 2022 Roe v. Wade accepted the trigger ban that went into effect after he dropped his lawsuit.
There is Owens blhecked The state’s abortion laws have now tripled.
Wellspring Health Access, one of the plaintiffs in the current lawsuit, opened last year as Wyoming’s only full-service abortion clinic. The clinic was a target arson attack Weeks ahead of its scheduled 2022 opening.
The decision is the latest setback for anti-abortion rights groups. Ballot measures enshrining abortion rights in state constitutions during the 2024 election passed in seven of the 10 states where it was proposed.