Wyoming abortion laws, including ban on pills to end pregnancy, struck down by state judge
A state judge on Monday overturned Wyoming’s blanket ban on abortion, imposing an explicit ban on abortion nationwide for the first time. Ban on the use of drugs to terminate pregnancy Consistent with voters in more states expressing support for abortion rights.
Since 2022, Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens has issued three consecutive rulings blocking the laws while they were being contested in court.
The decision marks another victory for abortion rights advocates following voters in seven states Measures adopted to support access.
Owens said women’s rights under the state constitution are violated by a Wyoming law that bans abortion except to protect the life of a pregnant woman or in cases involving rape and incest. The other state makes Wyoming the only state to explicitly ban the abortion pill, although other states have de facto banned the drug through broad bans on abortion.
The laws are being challenged by four women, including two obstetricians, and two nonprofit groups. One such group, Wellspring Health Access, opened in April 2023 after an arson attack in 2022, becoming the state’s first full-service abortion clinic in years.
“This is a great day for the citizens of Wyoming and women everywhere who deserve to take control of their bodies,” Julie Burkhart, president of Wellspring Health Access, said in a statement.
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Missouri voters scored a series of victories for abortion rights advocates in recent elections, clearing the way to roll back some of the country’s strictest abortion bans. Meanwhile, Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota defeated similar constitutional amendments, leaving their bans in place.
Arizona, Colorado, Maryland and Montana also passed abortion rights amendments. Nevada voters also approved an amendment supporting abortion rights, but they need to pass it again in 2026 for it to take effect. Another provision prohibiting discrimination based on “results of pregnancy” prevails in New York.
The abortion landscape changed dramatically in 2022, when U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. WadeThe ruling ended abortion rights nationwide and cleared the way for bans to take effect in most Republican-controlled states.
Currently, 13 states are banning abortion at all stages of pregnancy (with a few exceptions), and four of them begin enforcing abortion bans around six weeks into pregnancy—usually before a woman realizes she is pregnant.
Nearly every ban has been challenged by lawsuits. Courts have blocked enforcement of some restrictions, including pregnancy bans in Utah and Wyoming. In September 2024, judges overturned bans in Georgia and North Dakota. The Georgia Supreme Court rules next month that the ban can be enforced locally while the case is heard.
In the Wyoming case, women and nonprofits challenging the law argued the bans would harm their health, well-being and livelihoods, but state attorneys disputed that assertion. They also argue that the bans violate a 2012 amendment to the state constitution that provides competent Wyoming residents with the right to make their own health care decisions.
As she did with previous rulings, Owens found merit in both arguments. Owens ruled that an abortion ban “would undermine the integrity of the medical profession by undermining doctors’ ability to provide evidence-based medicine to their patients.”
Owens ruled that abortion laws violated a constitutional amendment by impeding women’s fundamental right to make health care decisions for an entire class of people: those who are pregnant.
Wyoming voters approved the amendment because they feared government overreach after approving the federal Affordable Care Act and its initial requirement that people have health insurance.
Lawyers for the state argued that health care does not cover abortion under the amendment. Republican Gov. Mark Gordon, whose administration has defended laws passed in 2022 and 2023, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Monday.
Both sides want Owens to rule on a lawsuit challenging the abortion ban rather than allow the suit to go to trial in the spring. Owens had previously scheduled a three-day bench trial, but under this ruling, a trial was not necessary.
