Wyoming Judge Temporarily Blocks the State’s New Abortion Ban

Mr. Jerde said the legislature’s premise was that “intentional killing of an unborn child cannot be considered to be health care.”

“I would concede that if you focus just on the pregnant woman, it becomes a little bit easier to say, well, this has to be health care,” he continued. “But if you view it from that other perspective, it clearly is not.”

The plaintiffs include Dr. Giovannina Anthony, an obstetrician-gynecologist at the only clinic in Wyoming that has been providing abortions, and Wellspring Health Access, a clinic that plans to offer abortions when it opens this year. The other plaintiffs are another obstetrician-gynecologist who often treats high-risk pregnancies; an emergency room nurse; a fund that gives financing to abortion patients; and a woman who said her Jewish faith requires access to abortion if a pregnant woman’s physical or mental health or life is in danger.

John Robinson, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told Judge Owens that both the overall ban and the medication abortion ban violate several constitutional provisions because they “attempt to strip women of their rights to equality, health care and religion during a very specific life cycle, from conception to birth.”

He said the laws signal that during pregnancy “the legislature does not consider the woman an equal member of the human race and Wyoming.”

Mr. Jerde argued that the laws did not violate the constitutional provisions that the plaintiffs cited. He also said the implications of the plaintiffs’ arguments would be that a person with a health condition that might be treated with marijuana “would be free to possess and consume marijuana, regardless of the state laws that prohibit it and criminalize it.”

Judge Owens said that only courts can decide whether the laws are constitutional.

“To declare abortion is not health care when there may be evidence to show that it is — the legislature cannot make an end run around essentially providing a constitutional amendment,” she said, adding “the state cannot legislate away a constitutional right. It’s not clear if abortion is or isn’t health care, and the court has to then decide that.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/22/health/wyoming-abortion-ban.html