(CV) Marking a dark day for protections for the unborn, in a landmark 4-1 decision Jan. 6, the Wyoming Supreme Court struck down two sweeping abortion restrictions, including the nation’s first explicit abortion pill ban, ruling that they violate the state constitution.
According to The Hill, the court sided with Wellspring Health Access, Chelsea’s Fund, and four women who argued that Wyoming’s 2023 bans infringed on Article 1, Section 38 of the Wyoming state constitution, which affirms an adult’s “right to make his or her own health care decisions.” The laws under review included the Life is a Human Right Act, which enacted a near-total ban on abortion and specifically outlawed abortion pills, the first such law in the U.S. since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Applying the “strict scrutiny” legal standard, the justices determined that the state failed to prove the laws were narrowly tailored to protect prenatal life without unjustifiably restricting women’s constitutional rights. Justice John Fenn emphasized that the state did not meet its burden of demonstrating that the bans were “reasonable and necessary restrictions” on health care freedom, The Hill reported.
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According to AP News, all justices in the majority were appointed by Republican governors, yet they affirmed that abortion qualifies as health care under Wyoming law. The court rejected state arguments that abortion falls outside the definition of health care and is thus unprotected.
This ruling upholds earlier lower court injunctions that had already blocked the laws, allowing Wyoming’s only abortion provider — Wellspring Health Access in Casper — to continue services uninterrupted.
The court’s majority opinion acknowledged that the 2012 constitutional amendment wasn’t intended to address abortion directly, but affirmed that “nothing in the plain language of the amendment which indicates abortion is not health care or otherwise limits access to abortion care” according to the official ruling.
Tweet This: The Wyoming Supreme Court ruled the state's abortion ban and its ban on abortion pills violate a 2012 amendment to the state Constitution.
The justices also left the door open for voters or lawmakers to seek a clarifying constitutional amendment, a path Gov. Mark Gordon encouraged in a statement expressing disappointment over the decision. Gordon called on lawmakers to pursue a constitutional amendment via a public referendum to ban abortion in the state.
“This ruling is profoundly unfortunate and sadly only serves to prolong the ultimate and proper resolution of this issue,” he said. “This ruling may settle, for now, a legal question, but it does not settle the moral one, nor does it reflect where many Wyoming citizens stand, including myself.”
He later added, “Every year that we delay the proper resolution of this issue results in more deaths of unborn children. This is a dilemma of enormous moral and social consequence.”
According to AP News, the justices ruled that both the near-total abortion ban — known as the Life is a Human Right Act — and the nation’s first explicit ban on abortion pills violate a 2012 amendment to the Wyoming Constitution. That amendment guarantees competent adults the right to make their own health care decisions, originally adopted in opposition to the Affordable Care Act.
Editor's note: This article was published by Catholic Vote and is reprinted with permission.
