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Wyoming’s two near-total abortion bans were recently struck down by a Teton County district judge. In response, Republican and Democratic state legislators are gearing up to pass abortion-related bills in the next legislative session.
Some Wyoming Freedom Caucus representatives in the House plan to introduce bills restricting abortions.
“The judge in Teton County usurps the authority of the Legislature,” said Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams (R-Cody), the chair of the Freedom Caucus and the primary sponsor of one of the recently-defeated bans. “She defined terms that the legislative body had already defined. I would say, as a member of the pro-life caucus in the Wyoming Legislature, that right now, everything is on the table.”
One bill Wyoming should expect will mirror a measure that was vetoed by Gov. Mark Gordon in the last session. It’ll require clinics that provide abortions to become licensed ambulatory surgical centers, similar to hospitals.
That law would impact the only clinic left in Wyoming that provides the procedure in Casper.
It would likely require Wellspring Health Access and any other clinics that start up to make physical renovations to better accommodate surgeries, like altering the size of hallways and doorways, and would fine clinics every calendar day that they don’t comply as part of a misdemeanor offense.
Rep. Chip Neiman (R-Hulett), a Freedom Caucus member and the incoming speaker of the House, told Wyoming Public Radio in a recent interview that the bill is intended to make it so, “if you’re going to have an abortion, that you have it in a facility that is prepared to handle any kind of emergency situation.”
But critics of the bill say procedural abortions are safe, with a complication rate of less than two percent. Wellspring’s founder, Julie Burkhart, told WPR that in 2023, her clinic’s own complication rate was on par with that figure, and that the regulation is unnecessary and burdensome.
Another measure Neiman and Freedom Caucus members say they’ll revive will be a requirement for Wyomingites to get an ultrasound 48 hours before they can receive medication to end a pregnancy. A bill aiming to require just that died when it failed to be introduced last session.
“That is health care for the woman, let’s be honest,” said Neiman. “Look at the kind of trouble that that can create for her if she takes that medication, [and] that child is in the wrong trimester.”
According to language in a previous iteration of the bill, any physician who doesn’t verify that their patient received the ultrasound would be guilty of a felony and could receive a fine up to $20,000, imprisonment up to five years, or both.
Opponents of similar measures in other states have said the policy amounts to “scare tactics” and “a nonmedical requirement.”
On the flip side, Democratic lawmakers like Rep. Mike Yin (D-Jackson) will try to reintroduce the Wyoming Reproductive Freedom Act to further protect abortion procedures after the Teton County rulings.
“[It will be] very clear for doctors and very clear for women, that one, they have rights in the state of Wyoming, and two, that we’re not going to put doctors in jail … for making sure that they can do services to help women with their health care needs,” said Yin.
But that measure’s fate is unclear, since Democrats make up less than 10 percent of the Legislature. Yin said he was hopeful that some pro-choice GOP lawmakers will vote with Democrats to pass the bill.
“Maternity care was the number-one issue for the [interim] Labor and Health Committee this year, and we did literally nothing about it,” Yin said. “We learned that there are maternity deserts across the state of Wyoming, and that they’re only going to get worse. And we also learned at one of those meetings that the abortion ban is making it harder for us to recruit OB-GYNs.”
The 68th Wyoming Legislature will meet for the first time on Jan. 14 in Cheyenne.
This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.
