The Wyoming Attorney General’s Office will appeal a judge’s ruling that struck down the state’s two abortion bans, Gov. Mark Gordon said Tuesday.
The appeal will send the case to the Wyoming Supreme Court to wrestle with the question of whether the bans, which lawmakers passed in 2023, are indeed unconstitutional. District Court Judge Melissa Owens of Teton County ruled Monday that the laws violate a state constitutional amendment that protects individuals’ rights to make their own health care decisions.
Meantime, most abortions remain legal in Wyoming.
“Judge Owen’s ruling is frustrating, still this is just one of the steps in the judicial process,” Gordon, who appointed Owens to the bench in 2021, said in a written statement. “Regardless of her decision, it was clear there would be an appeal. I remain committed to defending the constitutionality of this law and the sanctity of life.”
Gordon said he would not offer additional comments on the matter since litigation is ongoing.
State legislators last year passed a law that banned most abortions, with exceptions for rape, incest and preserving the life of the mother. They also enacted a second ban that prohibited medication abortions. A group of women, health care providers and an aid group filed suit, asserting the laws were unconstitutional.
Owens put the bans on hold while the case proceeded through the court, blocking the state from shutting down abortion providers in Casper and Jackson. On Monday, she issued her long-awaited ruling, setting up a showdown at the Wyoming Supreme Court.
Constitutional interpretation
The ruling concluded that the bans violate a section of the Wyoming Constitution that voters added in 2012 amid rising conservative concern over Obamacare. The amendment enshrines the right of competent adults to make their own health care decisions.
The plaintiffs in the case argued the bans violated other parts of the constitution, but Owens did not address those challenges because she had already determined the laws violated the 2012 amendment. She ruled there was no ambiguity to the meaning of the amendment, agreeing with the plaintiffs that the drafters sought to grant all Wyoming adults the right to “make their own decisions about what health care services they receive from medical professionals to restore and maintain their health.”
The two sides in the case were at odds over whether abortion constituted a form of health care. In their attempt to defend the bans, state lawyers contended pregnancy did not fit under the definition of health because it is neither a disease nor a sickness, according to the ruling. But Owens concluded the concept of health care applies to medical services provided to people whether they are sick or well.
Owens went on to reject the argument that abortions don’t fall under the amendment’s purview.
“As the Plaintiffs argued, only a pregnant woman can make a decision to have an abortion,” she wrote. “No other person can make that decision for a competent pregnant woman. To adopt Defendants’ argument the Court would have to rewrite the Health Care Amendment.”
Later in the ruling, Owens concluded that the bans impeded the right to make health care decisions for an entire class of society — pregnant women.
“The Defendants have not established a compelling governmental interest to exclude pregnant women from fully realizing the protections afforded by the Wyoming Constitution during the entire term of their pregnancies, nor have the Defendants established that the Abortion Statutes accomplish their interest,” she wrote. “The Court concludes that the Abortion Statutes suspend a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions during the entire term of a pregnancy and are not reasonable or necessary to protect the health and general welfare of the people.”
Ruling criticized, cheered
Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, the Cody Republican who sponsored the broader of the two abortion bans, criticized Owens’ conclusions, calling her an “activist judge.”
“Her opinion goes beyond typical legal analysis and proclaims a nonexistent right to kill other humans solely because of their temporary location,” the lawmaker wrote in a Facebook post. “I will never give up in the fight to protect life. I pray that someday, we will all look back on this time with horror and regret. This is the slavery of our time.”
Rep. Chip Neiman (R-Hulett), who unsuccessfully sought with Rodriguez-Williams to directly intervene in the legal case in defense of the laws, said on Facebook that innocent lives had been abandoned by Wyoming’s court system.
“I am appalled by the decision to allow the taking of lives who cannot cry out or defend themselves in any way,” he wrote. “We should be doing everything we can to protect innocent lives as our constitution clearly spells out but, yet again, courts not legislatures are making laws.”
Democrats in the Legislature, meanwhile, expressed support for the decision “to protect the freedom and health of all Wyomingities.”
“The key finding in the opinion is that abortion care is health care, as that term would have been understood by the voters who adopted the amendment in 2012,” said Rep. Ken Chestek (D-Laramie), an emeritus law professor at the University of Wyoming.
“Making your own health care decisions means being able to get care without confusing, harmful mandates from the state that risk your health and even your future ability to raise a family,” added House Minority Floor Leader Mike Yin (D-Jackson) in a statement.
My my my .. The same corrupt folks that wanted the constitutional amendment in the first place, and not just legislators, but our anti-vax neighbors now think government should control health care. Could it be that these dogmatic freedom folks are a bit misogynist?
Dear Gov Gordon, your response is yet another example of a guy not understanding that no means, NO. Pandering to the Freedom Caucus isn’t a good look. Do better. Seriously.
Many times in our nation’s history there have been legislators how feel our Constitution and Bill of Rights Bill of Rights were not well thought out and they play with then like kids playing marbles. Games that are of little benefit to society but they enjoy it.
Only two more years and we will not have him to deal with and women will enjoy the right to make their own decisions and not be enslaved by our legislators.
Would those who doggedly pursue the unconstitutional bans placed on abortion in Wyoming please just admit that they are trying to substitute their opinions, their beliefs and their life experience for mine? They don’t walk my path. They don’t live in my life, past, present or future. They don’t have standing in my deliberations as I consider the choices that I face. I will never force them to have an abortion, may they never be allowed to force me to accept their choices in my life.
Apparently the latest fashion trend is to be an ignorant male who wants the GOP in a woman’s reproductive organs. Governor Gordon is rockin’ the look!!!
To take this to the Supreme Court after the well-reasoned takedown of every argument that the state presented in defense of it is folly at best, and a huge waste of taxpayer dollars. So what’s his purpose? To salve his bruised ego? Or does he believe that the real, unspoken reason (women aren’t competent adults) should have been considered?
Gordon should keep his nose out of this. The freedom caucus and other conservatives who wanted to destroy Obamacare are the ones who created the constitutional amendment that states every individual has a right to their own healthcare decisions. But when that effort came back to bite them, they are crying ‘foul’. I don’t know what stance Gordon has on abortion, but I’m guessing it’s whatever the FC is requiring of him. He clearly does not have the fortitude to think for himself. They passed the constitutional amendment – Judge Owens simply interpreted the law as the legislature passed it.
My state rep is Rachel Rodriguez Williams, the arch-activist against abortion in the Wyoming Legislature, and now chair of the authoritarian Freedom Caucus. She has heard from me many times in recent years on abortion . Lately it’s either with tone deaf ears or simply turning her back. So I will tell you’all what she refuses to hear.
Wyoming needs to put abortion on the general election ballot, preferably as a Constitutional amendment , as other states both red and blue have done. Settle it once and for all by the choice of the people. The social conservatives statewide and especially the Freedom Caucus should not be the sole arbiters of abortion. It’s far more important than them, but so far they have succeeded in stonewalling any statewide referendums.
So let’s do this, Rachel & Ilk. Draft a constitutional amendment ballot that declares abortion to be health care to the extent that enshrines in the state constitution the right for persons- not governments- to make and carry out the decisions about reproductive rights, pregnancy, and abortion.
Wyoming should do what Montana just did with the CI-128 balloting. Reproductive Rights passed easily in a state that otherwise shifted deep into the red swamp of conservative Republican dogma. It’s happened elsewhere , even in red states. Abortion Rights were on the ballot in 10 states, and seven of them passed the initiative . I’d suggest you use Montana’s CI-128 language as boilerplate for the Wyoming referendum ,
So I dare you, Rachel Rodriguez Williams and your ilk : let’s settle Wyoming abortion once and for all Constitutionally. I’m already there… I believe ALL reproductive rights are already protected in the Wyoming constitution. Judge Owens ruled properly in that channel. For those of you who don’t know, Rachel has both a Bachelors and Masters degree in Criminal Justice , and a Bachelors in law enforcement administration, so she of all people should know how to go about enforcing the laws on the books. Yet all the bills she’s proposed over the years attempting to criminalize abortion in Wyoming seem to go against existing legal frameworks. Folks should know that Rachel is networked in the national social activism machinery and gets her legislative bill language provided her externally to Wyoming . Hmmm….
I’m willing to test abortion with the electorate. I suspect Wyoming will go the way of Montana and allow all reproductive rights to be constitutionally protected as personal health care. I also believe that Rachel and the Freedom Caucus are afraid to be called out on it and actually allow the voters decide , so they keep deflecting and denying. The problem is, a legislative law simply isn’t enough , and laws can be fairly easily changed over time , whereas the Constitution requires statewide inclusive process. It seems to be the best path on this issue. Take the dare if you truly care and feel you are on the right side of this.
Bottom Line: I for one am disgusted with allowing about 65 Freedom Caucus demagogue legislators make dogmatic policy for 650,000 Wyoming citizens, and Governor Gordon is also a disappointment.
It is too bad that Governor Gordon did not show his true colors before the last time we had a choice to get rid of him! At least he will not be able to run for the same office again due to the term limits that will force a change!
Having three daughters and two granddaughters still living in Wyoming, I worry daily about their joint and several Healthcare options. I’m old enough to recall a Dwight D Eisenhower quote from the 50s: “Extremes to the Right and to the Left of any political dispute, are always wrong”.
In such a visually beautiful state, the undercurrent of radical ideology is harmful to females and taints the Wyoming vision of “ The equality State”.
We see through it all. This isn’t about babies, it’s about oppressing women. My daughters are considering moving out of Wyoming, which means I could move and retire in peace.
Keep in mind that the governor did not have the guts to sign this legislation into law because he did not want its stink on his hands. Gordon knew it was bad. He sat back and let it into law without his signature. So why is he now the bill’s advocate?
Yeah, Gordon says Judge Owens’ ruling is frustrating? His spinelessness in allowing the law to go into effect without his signature is what’s frustrating. He may be in sync with his conservative Legislature, but he’s not in sync with the people of Wyoming.
Keep trying to erode human rights and see where it gets you, Wyoming. The state is already a maternity desert. If I were advising a young woman, I would tell her to move somewhere else where she could safely have children and make any tough decisions if necessary without politicians trying to meddle in her business and with her life.