House Judiciary advances bill restricting abortion clinics
The “Reproductive Freedom Act,” an ultrasound bill, and another bill tightening clinic requirements died during the first week of this year’s budget session.
Of the four abortion-related bills filed in the Wyoming Legislature this year, only one remains after the first week of the session.
The one bill still standing, House Bill 148, would require facilities offering abortion services to register as “ambulatory surgical centers” and follow the requirements of that designation. The bill passed introduction with a 53-8 vote and has now made it through the House Judiciary Committee with a 7-2 vote and minor amendments. It will return to the House floor for further readings.
Worland Rep. Martha Lawley, the bill’s sponsor, said the legislation aims to protect the health of women receiving abortions. Abortion is currently legal in Wyoming, but only because laws passed by the legislature last year are tied up in the courts.
“As long as abortion remains legal in Wyoming, we have a responsibility to protect the health and safety of women getting surgical abortions,” Lawley told her fellow representatives on the House floor last week. “During what people are now referring to as the Roe era, states were constantly being challenged on any regulations of abortion clinics as a violation of the Roe [v. Wade] ruling. Many states didn’t do a lot of regulation during that era. But we’re in the Dobbs era now.”
For nearly 50 years, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade enshrined the nationwide right to have an abortion. In the summer of 2022, however, the court overturned the Roe decision with its ruling in a case titled “Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.” The Dobbs decision has allowed states like Wyoming to pass bills restricting or outlawing abortion access.
Albany County Reps. Karlee Provenza (HD-45), Trey Sherwood (HD-14) and Ken Chestek (HD-13) voted against the bill. The three Albany County Democrats were joined in their opposition by five other lawmakers. Minority Floor Leader Rep. Mike Yin (HD-16) reminded his colleagues that a similar bill passed in Texas was ultimately ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Lawmakers haven’t been the only ones to criticize the “safety regulations” required by HB148. Julie Burkhart, the owner of Wellspring Health Access clinic in Casper, said meeting the qualifications for an ambulatory surgical center would require significant physical renovations.
“I firmly believe we would have to close down for some amount of time,” Burkhart told Wyoming Public Radio. “It’s clearly a ploy to make sure that abortion services are not provided in Wyoming.”
Outside of HB148, every bill related to abortion — whether pro- or anti-abortion rights — has died. The Reproductive Freedom Act brought by Albany and Teton County Democrats was never considered. Neither was a bill requiring that anyone seeking a chemical abortion be given an ultrasound.
Another bill — “Protecting water from chemical abortion waste” — was considered, but it failed to achieve the two-thirds majority support bills need to survive introduction during a budget session like 2024.
Killed: SF108 - Protecting water from chemical abortions
Chamber of origin: Senate
Introduction vote: 16-15
Current status: Dead
This bill would have required that “no abortion drug … shall enter any public water supply or community water system. The manufacturer of any abortion drug shall be responsible for proper disposal of discarded abortion drugs and for the mitigation and remediation of any environmental effects of abortion drugs, including endocrine‑disrupting chemical byproducts of abortion drugs, that may enter any disposal system, sewerage system, public water supply, community water system or the waters of the state as a result of the disposal of tainted human remains from at‑home abortions.”
SF108 received simple majority support with a 16-15 vote — but that meant it failed introduction, which requires a two-thirds vote during a budget session.
Killed: HB76 - Reproductive Freedom Act
Chamber of origin: House
No introduction vote
Current status: Dead
Sponsored by Rep. Mike Yin (HD-16) and co-sponsored by a number of Albany County legislators, House Bill 76 would have declared “the state shall not deny or interfere with a person’s right to have an abortion” so long as that abortion is sought “prior to viability of the fetus” or in an effort “to protect the person’s life or health.”
Despite its name, the Reproductive Freedom Act did not guarantee the complete protection of abortion rights. Access to abortion would have been limited to the specific scenarios listed above. But in outlining those scenarios, the Democrats behind HB76 aimed to set a floor for the state’s attempted and possibly imminent abortion restrictions.
Many of the lawmakers who endorsed this year’s abortion rights backstop bill also sponsored a bill with similar aims during the 2023 Legislative Session. That bill also failed.
HB76 was not considered before Friday evening, the deadline for introduction votes.
Killed: HB137 - Chemical abortions-ultrasound requirement
Chamber of origin: House
No introduction vote
Current status: Dead
A coalition of 19 Republicans brought House Bill 137, “Chemical abortions-ultrasound requirement,” which would have required that a pregnant individual, before receiving a chemical abortion, “receive an ultrasound in order to provide the pregnant woman the opportunity to view the active ultrasound of the unborn child and hear the heartbeat of the unborn child if the heartbeat is audible.”
Abortions performed to “save the life or preserve the health of the unborn baby, remove a dead unborn baby caused by spontaneous abortion or intrauterine fetal demise, treat a woman for an ectopic pregnancy, or treat a woman for cancer or another disease that requires medical treatment which treatment may be fatal or harmful to the unborn baby” would have been exempted from this ultrasound requirement.
HB137 was not considered before Friday evening, the deadline for introduction votes.
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So the people that don’t want to be told to put on masks, don’t want schools to interfere with their trans kids … want to decide the most intimate decisions for women. What happened to Wyoming independence? Are we just a copy cat state.
Why don’t you focus on “real” Wyo problems like jobs, suicide rates, highest per capita rate of minor incarceration, poor math scores, outdated marijuanna laws that sends money to Colorado, declining enrollment at a poorly run University that is out of step with the people of Wyoming, denial of coals actual future and our dependence on the fed…just for starters. So basically stay out of women’s underwear - hypocrites!