March 24, 2023 |
Photo – Teton County District Courthouse – Courtesy Wyoming County Commissioners Association website
A Teton County judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked a state abortion ban that the governor allowed to become law without his signature last Friday. The court decision makes abortion legal in the state for now.
District Court Judge Melissa Owens granted the order, blocking the law’s enforcement for at least two weeks, as the court considers a lawsuit filed against the state by abortion providers. Only one clinic in Wyoming performs abortion procedures. It’s located in Jackson.
The Life is a Human Right Act bans abortions at all stages of pregnancy, except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the mother’s life.
An amendment in the Wyoming Constitution says adults have a right to make their own health care decisions. To dodge the constitutional provision, lawmakers defined abortion as “not health care” in the legislation.
In her oral decision, Judge Owens said, “The state cannot legislate away a constitutional right. It’s not clear whether abortion is health care. The court has to then decide that.”
Governor Gordon, when he allowed the bill to become law last week without his signature, said the people of Wyoming should decide the issue, not the courts or the legislature.
In a written statement, the Governor said, “If the Legislature wants to expressly address how the Wyoming Constitution treats abortion and defines health care, then those issues should be vetted through the amendment process laid out in Article 20 of the Wyoming Constitution and voted directly on by the people.”
House Bill 152 passed by wide margins in both chambers during the 2023 session. The third reading vote in the House on February 8, was 46-16. The anti-abortion legislation passed third reading in the Senate on March 1 with a vote of 25-5 with one abstention. The House concurred with the slightly altered senate version 49-10 with three abstentions. The enrolled act did not include an effective date as lawmakers anticipated the lawsuit.
