About 100 people filled the Wyoming Supreme Courtroom on April 16, as justices heard arguments about whether the state’s two near-total abortion bans are constitutional.
The five-member court has until mid-August to make a decision, but it was a big day for many who have been waiting for the justices to consider the case for nearly three years.
“ I'm relieved it's over, but it's certainly still up in the air,” said plaintiff Giovannina Anthony, a Jackson-based OB-GYN. She said she wore an all white suit to honor the suffragettes.
The laws in question are the Life is a Human Right Act, which bans almost all abortions, and a medical abortion ban, which bans abortion pills. Both bans, passed by lawmakers in 2023, include exceptions for cases of rape, incest and some threats to a woman’s life.
The case before the Supreme Court is appealing a ruling from late last year out of Teton County, which found the two laws violate pregnant people’s constitutional right to make their own healthcare decisions in Wyoming.
The case remains centered around whether abortion is healthcare, and who gets to decide when life begins.
According to Special Assistant Attorney General Jay Jerde, “The Legislature gets to decide because they’re the most answerable to the people.”
If Wyomingites don’t like these policy decisions, they can vote out their lawmakers, he said.
“They can run for office,” Jerde added. “They can lobby to get a joint resolution to amend the constitution.
Peter Modlin, an attorney representing Anthony and five other abortion supporters, argued the belief that life begins at conception is “fundamentally a religious question.”
Justice Kari Gray pushed back.
“ You want to code it with religion, but there is no universal agreement on when life begins, not secularly, not among Catholics versus Presbyterians versus the Jewish faith,” she said. “If there's no agreement, who gets to decide?”
”The state certainly doesn't get to decide which religious viewpoint is the state's official viewpoint,” Modlin responded. “ This must be left to individuals.”
Meanwhile, one attendee, Cheyenne resident Kathleen Skarupinski, grumbled in her seat.
“The human being is created at the time of conception,” she said after the hearing. “That's been around forever.”
Justices now have 120 days, or until August 14, to issue an opinion. In the meantime, abortion will remain legal in Wyoming, but access is limited.
Natrona County’s district court is currently considering another lawsuit challenging two new abortion laws that recently went into effect. One law requires pregnant people to get ultrasounds two days before getting a medical abortion.
Another law requires the state’s only procedural abortion clinic to renovate, among other restrictions. Wellspring Health Access has since stopped providing abortion services. This has left dozens of abortion-seekers traveling to other states such as Colorado or Montana. Abortions are restricted in both Idaho and Utah, where legal battles are also making their way through the courts.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
