Wyoming judge blocks law that bans all but earliest abortions

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A Wyoming judge has blocked a new state law that bans abortions beyond the earliest stages of pregnancy while a lawsuit challenging the provision moves ahead.

It's the first court ruling affecting the legal status of abortion in Wyoming since the state Supreme Court struck down sweeping abortion and abortion pill bans in January, finding that the laws violated the state constitution.

The new law, which would ban abortion after embryonic cardiac activity can be detected, is likely to be overturned on similar grounds, Natrona County District Judge Dan Forgey wrote in granting a temporary restraining order against it Friday.

Wyoming’s lone abortion clinic, Wellspring Health Access, and others challenging the new law welcomed the latest ruling after they successfully got the blanket abortion bans overturned.

“For nearly two months, this deeply harmful abortion ban has greatly reduced our ability to provide care to people in Wyoming,” Wellspring Health Access President Julie Burkhart said in a statement.

Currently 13 states are enforcing bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with rare exceptions. Four others – Iowa, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina – have bans that kick in at either six weeks’ gestation or when cardiac activity can be detected. That’s often before women realize they’re pregnant.

The state bans have been allowed to be enforced since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and ended a nationwide right to abortion. Since then, the court battles on state bans and restrictions have focused on language in state constitutions.

The Wyoming Supreme Court found that recent abortion bans passed by the state Legislature violated a voter-approved state constitutional amendment from 2012 that says competent adults have the right to make their own healthcare decisions.

The Republican-dominated Legislature responded with the ban on abortion after detection of embryonic cardiac activity. Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, signed it into law in March.

Wyoming should be able to uphold the latest law by “proving a compelling interest to protect human life,” Gordon said in a statement Monday.

He called for lawmakers to nonetheless pass a state constitutional amendment banning abortion that would go to voters to consider.

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Geoff Mulvihill in Haddonfield, New Jersey, contributed.