Wyoming Supreme Court Rules Women Have a ‘Fundamental Right’ to Abortion 

On Tuesday, the Wyoming Supreme Court struck down the state’s two abortion bans, ruling 4-1 that they violate the state constitution. “A woman has a fundamental right to make her own health care decisions, including the decision to have an abortion,” the court wrote in its 70-page opinion.

In 2023, the state passed a near-total abortion ban with narrow exceptions for rape, incest, or to save the life of the pregnant person, as well as a first-of-its-kind ban on medication abortion. Abortion providers and advocates, including those from Wellspring Health Access—which was forced to delay its opening by a year after an arson attack in 2022—sued the state, arguing the bans violated Wyoming’s constitution.

Ironically—and now fortuitously—Republicans in Wyoming were so pissed about Obamacare in 2012 that they changed their state constitution as a petty act of revolt. That amendment guarantees Wyomingites the right to make their own health care decisions. In 2024, Teton County District Court Judge Melissa Owens temporarily blocked both abortion bans, ruling that, yes, they were unconstitutional.

The state appealed, arguing that abortion does not qualify as healthcare because it does not involve recovering from “pain, physical disease or sickness.” Attorneys repeated that argument before the Wyoming Supreme Court in April, insisting that abortion therefore could not be protected under the anti-Obamacare amendment.

“The State did not meet its burden of demonstrating the Abortion Laws further the compelling interest of protecting unborn life without unduly infringing upon the woman’s fundamental right to make her own health care decisions,” the court wrote.

While the court acknowledged that the amendment was originally aimed at Obamacare, it emphasized that it “cannot add words to the Wyoming Constitution.” The ruling also noted that lawmakers remain free to ask “Wyoming voters to consider a constitutional amendment that would more clearly address this issue.”

The state’s Republican governor, Mark Gordon, seemingly only read that part of the court’s decision, condemning the ruling and calling on lawmakers “to pass and place a clear constitutional amendment on my desk during the upcoming Budget Session.”

Until then, abortion remains legal in Wyoming. Wellspring Health Access, the only abortion clinic in the state (the woman responsible for the 2022 arson is now serving a five-year prison sentence), celebrated the decision across social media.

“This ruling is a victory for the fundamental right of people across Wyoming to make decisions about their own lives and health,” Wellspring’s president, Julie Burkhart, wrote in a statement. “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.”

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