The Wyoming Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down two laws restricting abortion in the state, effectively allowing the procedure to remain legal until a fetus is considered viable at around 24 weeks.
In a 4-1 vote, the justices ruled that the laws — one a near-total abortion ban enacted in 2023 after the fall of Roe v. Wade, and the other prohibiting medication abortion — violated a state constitutional amendment affording people the right to make their own health care decisions.
“The State did not present enough evidence to show the restrictions (and exceptions) on performing abortions, and the ban on medications (and exceptions) are no more restrictive than necessary to serve the State’s interest in protecting prenatal life,” the court explained. “Therefore, the majority held that those laws are unconstitutional.”
In 2012, voters in Wyoming approved an amendment to the state constitution in response to the Affordable Care Act, enshrining the right for competent adults to make decisions about their health care. In their ruling, the justices acknowledged that although the amendment was aimed at concerns over the ACA, “[t]here is nothing in the plain language of the amendment which indicates abortion is not health care or otherwise limits access to abortion care,” they wrote.
The ruling is a major win for abortion rights advocates in one of the country’s reddest states.
Julie Burkhart, the president of Wellspring Health Access, Wyoming’s only abortion clinic and a plaintiff in the case, said in a statement that the court’s decision is “a victory for the fundamental right of people across Wyoming to make decisions about their own lives and health.”
Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, called the ruling “profoundly unfortunate,” and called for state lawmakers to pass a constitutional amendment to ban abortion so that voters could decide on the issue in the fall.
“A constitutional amendment taken to the people of Wyoming would trump any and all judicial decisions,” he said in a statement.
Fallon Gallagher is a legal affairs reporter for MS NOW.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.