The Wyoming Supreme Court has declined to rule on the future of abortion access in the state. The move is just the latest development in the lengthy legal battle over reproductive rights in the Cowboy State.
Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens had asked the high court to decide if the state’s near-total and medical abortion bans — passed by the state legislature last year — are constitutional, sending over 14 questions for the justices to answer.
The abortion laws have been blocked from going into effect while challenges to them make their way through the courts.
The supreme court said in a Tuesday notice that the district judge did not provide the facts necessary to weigh in on some questions, such as whether the abortion laws violate Wyomingites’ religious liberty and if they’re unconstitutionally vague.
“This Court acknowledges it will likely be required, at some point, to rule on the constitutionality of Wyoming’s abortion laws,” the notice read. “This Court stands ready to do so, if and when those constitutional questions are properly presented to it.”
The notice sent from the Wyoming Supreme Court on April 9. (Screenshot)
The court said that it and the litigants would be “best served” if the district court makes a ruling first. Both parties — the state’s defense team and abortion access advocates — have made requests for summary judgment in their favor.
This is the second time the supreme court has sent the case back to the lower court in the past two years, saying there weren’t enough facts in the case record. This move came as a surprise to both those for and against abortion access.
“I’m having a sense of déjà vu,” said Marti Halverson, who leads the anti abortion group, Wyoming Right to Life. “Now, I thought that Judge Owens, this time, had accumulated a sufficient record for the supreme court to consider.”
Christine Lichtenfels, who’s a plaintiff and leads the abortion advocacy group Chelsea’s Fund, said this is just another step in the process.
“We remain optimistic, and hopeful that Wyoming’s values of freedom and equality embodied in the Wyoming Constitution will continue to protect Wyoming women from dangerous and demeaning governmental overreach,” said Lichtenfels.
Abortion remains legal in Wyoming while the case makes its way back to Teton County court.
Plaintiff Christine Lichtenfels (center) listens during a hearing last summer in Teton County District Court. She’s suing the state to protect abortion access, along with abortion providers and women of child-bearing age. (Kathryn Ziesig/Jackson Hole News&Guide)
