Wyoming Supreme Court strikes down abortion bans, rules women have right to make 'own health care decisions'
Wyoming’s highest court has struck two state abortion bans, affirming a lower court decision.
In a 4-1 decision released Tuesday in the case of State v. Johnson, the Wyoming Supreme Court struck down the 2023 law known as the Life is a Human Right Act, as well as another law banning abortion drugs in most circumstances.
Chief Justice Lynne J. Boomgaarden authored the majority opinion, upholding a lower court ruling that concluded that the laws violated Article 1, § 38 of the Wyoming Constitution, which guarantees people “the right to make his or her own health care decisions.”
“Although we recognize the State’s interest in protecting the life that an abortion would end, we conclude the State did not meet its burden of justifying the abortion statutes’ restrictions on a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions,” wrote Boomgaarden.
“Certainly, the legislature enacts laws that regulate medical care in the state, but when such a law restricts an individual’s constitutional right to make a health care decision, this Court must interpret the constitution and determine whether the restriction is permissible.”
Justice John G. Fenn authored a concurring opinion, writing that while he agreed with the majority that “the decision to terminate or continue a pregnancy is a woman’s own health care decision,” he disagreed with the idea that “strict scrutiny applies to the right recognized in Article 1, § 38 of the Wyoming Constitution.”
“I would find Article 1, § 38 allows the legislature to enact reasonable and necessary restrictions that do not unduly infringe on the right to make one’s own health care decisions,” he added.
“Because the State failed to meet its burden of proving the Abortion Statutes meet this standard, I would find the statutes are unconstitutional and affirm the district court’s decision.”
Justice Kari Jo Gray authored a dissenting opinion, writing that the abortion laws “constitute a ‘reasonable and necessary’ restriction by the legislature on the right of a pregnant woman to make her own health care decisions for the purpose of preserving prenatal life at all stages of development.”
“When a fetus is entitled to legal protection is quintessentially a policy judgment about the relative weight of competing interests. In our constitutional system, such judgments belong in the first instance to the people’s elected representatives, who must answer to the people at the ballot box,” Gray wrote.
“The Wyoming Legislature decided prenatal life is entitled to protection from conception, and we are not at liberty to second-guess the wisdom or soundness of that policy judgment.”
Julie Burkhart, president of Wyoming’s only abortion clinic, Wellspring Health Access of Casper, released a statement celebrating the state supreme court ruling.
“This ruling is a victory for the fundamental right of people across Wyoming to make decisions about their own lives and health,” stated Burkhart, as quoted by WyoFile.
“Our clinic will remain open and ready to provide compassionate reproductive health care, including abortion, and our patients in Wyoming will be able to obtain this care without having to travel out of state.”
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, denounced the ruling, and called on the Wyoming Legislature to begin the process of creating a state constitutional amendment that would allow for such abortion bans to be passed.
“It is time for this issue to go before the people for a vote, and I believe it should go before them this fall. A constitutional amendment taken to the people of Wyoming would trump any and all judicial decisions,” Gordon stated, as quoted by WyoFile.
