State restricts abortion rights, and heads back to court, as session dust settles
Albany County legislators were split down party lines when it came to abortion rights this session. Sen. Furphy co-sponsored both major bills, but the county’s Democrats opposed them.
The conclusion of the Wyoming Legislature’s 2023 General Session brings two new laws that restrict abortion rights in the state of Wyoming almost entirely, aside from a few situational exceptions. While Gov. Mark Gordon signed Senate File 109 Prohibiting Chemical Abortion into law Friday, he let House Bill 152 Life is a Human Right Act pass into law without his signature. The end result is that both will become the law of the land.
SF109 does what its title implies — banning medications used to conduct in-clinic or at-home abortions early in a pregnancy.
HB152 began as a total abortion ban but was amended during its journey through the Legislature to include a few exceptions — such as for rape, incest and some life-threatening circumstances. Last year, lawmakers passed a trigger ban — a prohibition on abortion activated by the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. But the trigger ban has since been held up in the courts for possibly violating healthcare provisions of the Wyoming Constitution. HB152 is meant to clear up that legal confusion by redefining abortion as “not health care” and moving ahead with a near-total ban.
But in a letter to Secretary of State Chuck Gray explaining his decision, Gordon writes that the “Life is a Human Right Act” will lead to further legal complications and that some of its language is problematic.
“That said, a majority of the Legislature spoke on this matter and consequently I have acted without bias and after extensive prayer, to allow these bills to become law,” Gordon writes.
But the governor said he happily signed the ban on abortion drugs, touting his support for it alongside his other “pro-life” actions, such as signing the “Medicaid for Moms” bill.
“I signed (SF109) because it strengthened the protections for the unborn contained in the 2022 (trigger ban), which is currently before the district court where it has been for nearly a year,” Gordon writes.
The combined implications of SF 109 and HB 152 make abortion services in Wyoming illegal (whether by medical operation or pill) except when the pregnancy resulted from rape, sexual assault or incest. Further exceptions include instances where the health of the baby or individual who is pregnant is compromised, as determined by a medical physician. The law is written so as not to include risk of depression or suicide as threats to the life of the individual. Women who are not able to access abortion when they seek it frequently experience a deterioration of their mental health.
The laws target medical providers and “others” who perform or sell abortion procedures prohibited by these new laws; pregnant individuals who accept abortion-related services will not face any form of repercussion. Legal implications for physicians or “other persons” who violate this law could face a fine up to $20,000, five years imprisonment, or both.
The new laws also prohibit the use of any state funds to pay for abortions.
For nearly 50 years, the U.S. Supreme Court case known as Roe v. Wade enshrined abortion protections nationwide — effectively prohibiting states from outright banning abortion even if they wanted to. But several states passed “trigger bans” like Wyoming’s — laws that would go into effect and ban abortion upon the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
The same individuals who filed the court case last year regarding Wyoming’s trigger ban have already filed suit against the Life is a Human Right Act in Teton County. They argue, once again, that the new law’s language violates the Wyoming Constitutional right to health care.
In his letter, Governor Gordon acknowledged the lawsuits will keep coming until lawmakers find a more permanent solution.
“ …while it may offer some improvement to the (trigger ban) I signed just last year, I believe now more than ever that if the Legislature seeks final resolution on this important issue, it ultimately may have to come through a Constitutional amendment,” said Gordon.
Like all hot-button political issues, there were divided feelings in the legislature — and among Albany County representatives and senators.
Sen. Dan Furphy (SD-10) co-sponsored both anti-abortion bills. He said he was glad to see HB152 amended as it moved through the legislature.
“I am pro-life, but the bill I was key on signing off on got amended a lot — and I’m really glad about that,” Furphy said. “I wasn’t okay with it at first. There were no exclusions at all, and that’s not right.”
Furphy said the “Medicaid for Moms” bill — expanding Medicaid to cover mothers in the first year of their baby’s life — was also a crucial addition to lawmakers’ anti-abortion efforts.
“My feeling is if we're gonna pass all these abortion bills, we better take care of these young mothers and their babies,” he said.
Rep. Ken Chestek (HD-13) called the abortion ban and its amendments unconstitutional and appalling.
“It's basically more explicitly enforcing religious views on the beginning of life — which is an Establishment Clause problem,” he said. “We can't have people who don't share that religious belief being forced to live by that religious belief by the state.”
According to a recent survey by the University of Wyoming, a majority of Wyomingites do not want a total abortion ban. A coalition of Teton and Albany County Democrats — including half of Albany County’s delegation — attempted to enshrine this popular opposition with a bill that would have definitively protected abortion access in some cases. But this ultimately failed.
Abortion will remain legal in the state if the Life is a Human Right Act becomes tied up in legal proceedings (as the trigger ban has been for the previous year). Rep. Karlee Provenza (HD-45) said the adoption of unconstitutional anti-abortion measures might —paradoxically — be the best strategy to keep abortion access legal in the state of Wyoming.
“Because then we're just back in court every single year and abortion remains legal,” she said. “So in some ways, they did us a favor. The one thing you swear to (as a state lawmaker) is to uphold the state and the United States Constitution …We can't even do that.”
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