Abortion stays legal in Wyoming after state's top court strikes down bans

Abortion will stay legal in Wyoming after the state's top court struck down laws that placed a near-total ban on the procedure.

The court ruled that Wyoming's anti-abortion legislation, including the nation's first ban on abortion pills, were in violation of the state's constitution.

"A woman has a fundamental right to make her own health care decisions, including the decision to have an abortion," the court wrote in a 4-1 decision.

Lawyers for the state had argued that abortion could not violate Wyoming's constitution because it does not constitute health care.

Wyoming is one of many states in which legal fights over abortion bans have ensued since 2022 - when the Supreme Court reversed the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade judgement legalising abortion.

More than a dozen states have since enacted near-total bans on abortions, several of which have been put on hold by the courts.

In Wyoming, the case against the state was brought by four women, including two obstetricians, an abortion advocacy group, and the state's only abortion provider, Wellspring Health Access in the city of Casper.

The state's Supreme Court looked at two laws - one banning abortion in all cases except to protect a pregnant woman's life or in cases involving rape or incest, and another banning abortion pills explicitly. Both laws were quashed on Tuesday.

"The record shows a pregnant woman's decision to continue or terminate a pregnancy is influenced by many considerations, all of them personal to the pregnant woman and her individual circumstances," the court wrote. "Although a woman's decision to have an abortion ends the fetal life, the decision is, nevertheless, one she makes concerning her own health care."

Wellspring Health Access celebrated the decision in a Facebook post, writing "Affirmed" alongside a quote from the court's ruling.

Abortion pills are the most common method of pregnancy termination in the US.

The Wyoming bill, which was passed by the state's Republican-controlled legislature in 2023, made it illegal to "prescribe, dispense, distribute, sell or use any drug for the purpose of procuring or performing an abortion".

At the time, Wyoming American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) advocacy director Antonio Serrano criticised the bill, saying "a person's health, not politics, should guide important medical decisions - including the decision to have an abortion".

Republicans in the state aren't happy with the laws being shot down. But they are now pushing for something more sweeping.

On Tuesday, Wyoming's Republican Governor Mark Gordon expressed disappointment over the ruling and called for state legislators to pass a constitutional amendment cementing the ban in the state.

"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 said. "It is time for this issue to go before the people for a vote, and I believe it should go before them this fall."