Wyoming judge blocks temporary state ban on abortion pills
A judge in Wyoming on Thursday temporarily blocked the first state law to specifically prohibit the use of pills for abortion, the most common method in the country.
Just over a week before the ban was due to take effect, Teton County District Court Judge Melissa Owens granted a temporary restraining order, suspending the law pending further court proceedings.
Judge Owens, who ruled from the bench after a hearing that lasted about two hours, said the plaintiffs, including four health care providers, “have clearly shown that they are likely to succeed on the merits and that at least some of the plaintiffs may suffer irreparable harm.” increase” if the ban were to take effect.
Drug-induced abortion is already banned in states that have near-total prohibitions, as that ban prohibits all forms of abortion. But Wyoming became the first state to ban the use of pills for abortion, apart from a blanket ban. The law would come into effect on July 1.
The banpassed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Mark Gordon in March, makes it illegal to “prescribe, supply, distribute, sell or use drugs for the purpose of obtaining or performing an abortion.”
Doctors or anyone else found guilty of violating this law will be charged with a felony, punishable by up to six months in prison and a $9,000 fine. The law explicitly says that pregnant women would be exempt from charges and fines.
In the year since the Supreme Court overturned the state’s abortion law, the Republican-controlled Wyoming legislature has tried to ban abortions in the state.
Last year, Judge Owens temporarily imposed a near-total ban on abortion, which she said appeared to contradict an amendment to the Wyoming Constitution that guarantees adults the right to make their own health care decisions. An overwhelming majority of Wyoming citizens voted in favor of that amendment in 2012.
In March, the legislature passed and the governor signed another near-total ban on abortions that attempted to circumvent that constitutional amendment by declaring that abortion is not health care. Judge Owens blocked that law shortly after it was signed, saying she questioned the state’s claim that abortion is not a health care.
The question of whether abortion is health care was also an important aspect of Thursday’s ban on medication abortion hearing. Jay Jerde, a special assistant attorney general for Wyoming, argued that while doctors and other healthcare providers should be involved in abortions, there are many cases where “getting the abortion does not imply health care because it does not affect the woman’s body recovers from pain ., physical illness or disease.”
Judge Owens questioned Mr Jerde’s argument. “Essentially, under this law, the government makes the decision for a woman,” she said, “rather than the woman making her own health care choice, which the vast majority in Wyoming decided we should do.”
The plaintiffs in the case, all of which are challenging prohibitions in various lawsuits, include the only two abortion providers in Wyoming; an obstetrician-gynecologist who often treats high-risk pregnancies; an emergency room nurse; a fund that provides funding to abortion patients; and a woman who said her Jewish faith requires access to abortion if a pregnant woman’s physical or mental health or life is in danger.
A ban on drug-induced abortion would have a substantial impact because pills have been the method used in nearly all recent abortions in the state, plaintiffs’ attorney Marci Bramlet told the court. Nationally, pills are now used in more than half of all abortions. Only one of the providers in Wyoming offers the other method, surgical abortions.
“The ban is intended to prohibit only drug-induced abortions, not all abortions, completely undermining the state’s stated goal of preserving prenatal life and allowing for surgical abortions that are more physically, financially and logistically invasive,” said Ms. Bramlet against the court. “The statute tells women, ‘You can have an abortion in Wyoming, but not using the safe, effective, FDA-approved medication available.'”