Laramie-backed effort to enshrine constitutional healthcare rights fails
Right-wing lawmakers rejected the proposal, saying the Wyoming Legislature needs the power to outlaw abortion, limit gender-affirming care and make decisions for uninformed state residents.
The Wyoming Constitution declares that every adult in the state has the right to make their own healthcare decisions. But the constitution also explicitly gives the State Legislature the power to place “reasonable and necessary restrictions” on that right.
An effort spearheaded by Laramie’s Sen. Chris Rothfuss (SD-9) — and co-sponsored by Rep. Karlee Provenza (HD-45) — sought to eliminate the Legislature’s authority to limit that right.
Senate Joint Resolution 10 would have accomplished this by putting the question on Wyoming ballots in 2024; voters across the state would then decide whether to take that authority away from the Legislature or leave it in lawmaker hands.
But the resolution failed on a 2-3 vote before the Senate Labor, Health and Social Services Committee Wednesday — meaning it’s now dead and won’t advance any further this session.
Rothfuss asked the committee Wednesday whether a constitutional “right” subject to legislative whims can properly be called a “right?”
Most Article 1 rights in Wyoming’s constitution are stated plainly and without such a caveat.
“We understand that there's going to be circumstances where your rights are not unlimited, as well as circumstances where those rights interfere with either other people's rights or other constitutional rights that come into tension and balance,” he said. “So, there's always going to be that struggle.”
Similar legal caveats and limitations exist for other rights — such as the Second Amendment right to bear arms enumerated in the U.S. Constitution — but Rothfuss said the Second Amendment is careful not to explicitly say that Congress can overrule it. He said that would weaken the promise of the Second Amendment, just as the caveat in the Wyoming Constitution weakens an individual’s right to make their own healthcare decisions.
“We don't need to put an asterisk next to it any longer,” Rothfuss said. “Let's give the people the opportunity to vote and decide whether they want the legislature to put the terms and conditions on the right to healthcare access, or whether they just want that right for their own.”
Specifically, the resolution deletes Article 1, Section 38(c) — a section of Wyoming law that’s been cited across various debates for a number of years. It’s been cited by both sides of the aisle to support various policy positions — from legalizing or continuing to outlaw cannabis to outlawing or protecting abortion rights.
Some of these issues were raised by Cheyenne’s Sen. Lynn Hutchings (SD-5). She voted to kill the resolution, citing the Legislature’s need to protect Wyoming residents.
“The people vote us into office to say, ‘Hey, I want you in there to help me in these areas where I don't understand.’ So, we're there for a reason,” she said. “But now, when we look at the day we're living in, the things we're doing — when we look at COVID, look at the masks, we look at abortion, we look at the vaccine mandates, we look at what we talked about yesterday, with the mutilation of children — sometimes, somebody needs to jump in and say, ‘Whoa, medically, we're going too far.’”
With the words “mutilation of children,” Hutchings is referring to gender-affirming care for trans youth. There is a bill currently before the Wyoming Legislature that would outlaw and severely punish anyone providing hormone blockers, hormone therapy or gender-affirming surgeries to Wyoming youth.
As experts testified last week, gender-affirming surgeries are not performed on youth in Wyoming and even hormone therapy is rare. While hormone blockers are prescribed and taken, they are widely considered safe and their effects mostly reversible.
But all gender-affirming care has been slapped with the “mutilation” moniker amid a right-wing effort to outlaw certain healthcare for trans youth.
Hutchings’ line of argument resonated with Laura Pearson, a self-identified sheep herder and bus driver from southwest Wyoming. Pearson testified against the bill via Zoom.
“If this was passed, it would prevent legislators from putting any restrictions on any surgical procedures — whether it be abortion, late-term abortion, sex changes for minors, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera,” she said. “Sorry, but sometimes we need our legislature to step in to protect our most innocent Wyomingites. The problem is many times voters don't know what they are voting for. This is why we elect our leaders. Many voters don't really do their research on what they are voting for.”
The bill died on a 2-3 vote. Senators Fred Baldwin (S-14) and Eric Barlow (SD-23) voted to advance the resolution, but they were outvoted by Senators Hutchings, Anthony Bouchard (SD-6) and Dan Dockstader (SD-16).