Judge strikes down Wyoming’s anti-abortion laws in victory for rights advocates

A Wyoming judge has struck down the state’s overall ban on abortion and its first-in-the-country explicit prohibition on the use of medication to end pregnancy – in line with voters in further states voicing support for abortion rights.

The Teton county district judge, Melissa Owens, has ruled three times since 2022 to block the laws while they were disputed in court.

The decision on Monday marks another victory for abortion rights advocates after voters in seven states passed measures in support of access.

One of the Wyoming laws that Owens said violated women’s rights under the state constitution bans abortion except to protect a pregnant woman’s life or in cases involving rape and incest. The other made Wyoming the only state to explicitly ban abortion pills, though other states have instituted de facto bans on the medication by broadly prohibiting abortion.

The laws were challenged by four women, two of whom are obstetricians, as well as two nonprofit organizations. One of the groups, Wellspring Health Access, opened as the state’s first full-service abortion clinic in years in April 2023 after an arson attack in 2022.

“This is a wonderful day for the citizens of Wyoming – and women everywhere, who should have control over their own bodies,” said the Wellspring Health Access president, Julie Burkhart.

Currently, 13 states are enforcing bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions, and four have bans that kick in at or about six weeks into pregnancy – before many women realise they’re pregnant.

Nearly every ban has been challenged with a lawsuit. Courts have blocked the enforcement of some restrictions, including bans throughout pregnancy in Utah and Wyoming. Judges struck down bans in Georgia and North Dakota in September 2024. Georgia’s supreme court ruled the next month that the ban there can be enforced while it considers the case.

In the Wyoming case, the women and nonprofits who challenged the laws argued that the bans stood to harm their health, wellbeing and livelihoods – claims disputed by attorneys for the state. They also argued the bans violated a 2012 state constitutional amendment saying competent Wyoming residents have a right to make their own health care decisions.

As she had done with previous rulings, Owens found merit in both of these arguments. The abortion bans “will undermine the integrity of the medical profession by hamstringing the ability of physicians to provide evidence-based medicine to their patients”, Owens ruled.

The abortion laws impede the fundamental right of women to make health care decisions for an entire class of people – those who are pregnant – in violation of the constitutional amendment, Owens ruled.

Wyoming voters approved the amendment amid fears of government overreach after approval of the federal Affordable Care Act and its initial requirements for people to have health insurance. Attorneys for the state argued that health care, under the amendment, did not include abortion. The Republican governor, Mark Gordon, who signed the abortion laws into effect in 2022 and 2023, did not immediately return an email from the Associated Press on Monday seeking comment.

Both sides wanted Owens to rule on the lawsuit challenging the abortion bans rather than allow it to go to trial in the spring. A three-day bench trial before Owens was previously set, but will not be necessary with this ruling.

The recent US elections saw voters in Missouri clear the way to undo one of the country’s most restrictive abortion bans.

Abortion rights amendments also passed in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland and Montana. Nevada voters approved an amendment in support of abortion rights, but they will need to pass it again in 2026 for it to take effect. Another that bans discrimination on the basis of “pregnancy outcomes” prevailed in New York. Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota, meanwhile, defeated constitutional amendments, leaving bans in place.

The abortion landscape underwent a seismic shift in 2022 when the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade. The 2022 ruling ended a nationwide right to abortion and cleared the way for bans to take effect in most Republican-controlled states.