A state judge on Monday struck down Wyoming’s blanket ban on abortion and the first in the state. prohibition of using drugs to terminate pregnancy in line with voters in other states who have voiced support for abortion rights.
Since 2022, Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens has ruled consistently three times to block the legislation while it is being disputed in court.
The decision gave abortion rights supporters another victory after voting in seven states through measures to support access.
One Wyoming law that Owens said violates women’s rights under the state constitution bans abortion except to protect the life of a pregnant woman or in cases involving rape and incest. The other makes Wyoming the only state to expressly ban the abortion pill, even though other states have enacted de facto bans on the drug by banning abortion.
The law was challenged by four women, including two obstetricians, and two non-profit organizations. One such group, Wellspring Health Access, opened as the country’s first full-service abortion clinic in years in April 2023 after the 2022 arson attack.
“This is a great day for the people of Wyoming — and women everywhere who need to take control of themselves,” Wellspring Health Access President Julie Burkhart said in a statement.
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The recent election saw voters in Missouri clear the way to repeal one of the state’s most restrictive abortion bans in a series of victories for abortion rights advocates. Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota, meanwhile, defeated the same constitutional amendment, leaving the ban in place.
Abortion rights amendments were also passed in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland and Montana. Nevada voters also approved an amendment to support abortion rights, but it must be passed again in 2026 to take effect. Another that prohibits discrimination based on “pregnancy results” is in New York.
The abortion landscape is undergoing a seismic shift in 2022 when The US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wadedecision that ends the national right to abortion and clears the way for the ban to be applied in most Republican-controlled countries.
Currently, 13 countries ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions, and four have bans that begin at or about six weeks into pregnancy — often before women even know they’re pregnant.
Nearly every ban has been challenged with lawsuits. Courts have blocked enforcement of some restrictions, including bans during pregnancy in Utah and Wyoming. Judges struck down the bans in Georgia and North Dakota in September 2024. The Georgia Supreme Court ruled the following month that the bans could be enforced while considering the case.
In the Wyoming case, women and nonprofits challenging the law said the ban would harm their health, welfare and livelihoods, claims state attorneys disputed. They also say the ban violates a 2012 state constitutional amendment that says competent Wyoming residents have the right to make their own health care decisions.
As he has done before, Owens finds merit in both arguments. An abortion ban “would undermine the integrity of the medical profession by reducing the ability of physicians to provide evidence-based medicine to patients,” Owens said.
Abortion laws barring women’s basic right to make health care decisions for an entire class of people — pregnant ones — violate the constitutional amendment, Owens ruled.
Wyoming voters approved the amendment amid concerns about government overreach following the passage of the federal Affordable Care Act and its initial requirement that people have health insurance.
State attorneys argued that health care, under the amendment, did not include abortion. Republican Gov. Mark Gordon, whose administration is defending the legislation that runs through 2022 and 2023, did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
Both sides want Owens to rule on the lawsuit challenging the abortion ban instead of allowing it to go to trial in the spring. Owens’ three-day bench trial was set earlier, but was unnecessary with this decision.
