A state judge has temporarily blocked Wyoming’s new near-total abortion ban that took effect Sunday.
Gov. Mark Gordon says he’s disappointed but looks forward to the state defending the abortion ban in court.
The ruling by Teton County District Court Judge Melissa Owens, issued after an hour-long hearing on Wednesday, suspends the ban for at least two weeks while a lawsuit challenging it goes forward.
The Republican dominated legislature passed a total ban last year, but Owens suspended that law, citing an amendment in the Wyoming Constitution that says adults have a right to make their own health care decisions.
The legislature passed a new ban this year that gets around the constitutional issue by declaring abortion is not health care.
Judge Owens ruled it’s up to the courts, not lawmakers, to decide whether that’s the case, saying in an oral decision that “It’s not clear whether abortion is health care. The court has to then decide that.”
Owens is also the judge handling a legal challenge to Wyoming’s new ban on abortion pills that will take effect in July.
Meanwhile, Wyoming authorities say a woman has been arrested for allegedly setting fire to a building set to house the state’s only full-service abortion clinic.
Police announced yesterday that 22-year-old Lorna Green had been arrested Tuesday on charges from the May 2022 fire in Casper.
No one was injured in the blaze, but the fire delayed the clinic’s opening, which was initially planned for last summer. It was most recently scheduled to open next month.