Editor’s Note: This is a breaking news story and may be updated.
Procedural and medication abortions will be accessible in Wyoming again.
That’s because retired Laramie County District Judge Thomas T.C. Campbell temporarily blocked two new abortion laws on April 21, delivering a win for abortion advocates.
The injunction comes a week after the Wyoming Supreme Court heard arguments in a separate civil case challenging two other laws that amount to a near total ban on the procedure.
The temporary pause means Wellspring Health Access, the only clinic that provides procedural abortions in the state, will be able to start offering a full range of services later this week, according to the clinic’s founder Julie Burkhart. This includes medication and procedural abortions.
“I think it says to people that there's never a wrong time to fight for justice, and this is our time to fight for justice for our patients in Wyoming,” said Burkhart, a plaintiff in the case, in a phone interview with Wyoming Public Radio. “We're just happy we can do that.”
A spokesperson for Gov. Mark Gordon declined to comment on the ruling, writing in an email that, “The state does not comment on active litigation.”
Wellspring had closed its doors in late February after Gordon signed HB 42. That law required Wellspring and any other clinics providing procedural abortions to get licensed as an ambulatory surgical center, among other requirements. Burkhart said she believed at least 100 patients, both in state and out of state, have been turned away by the clinic while the matter was being adjudicated.
In his order granting the motion for preliminary injunction, Campbell wrote that “[ambulatory surgical center] compliance demands meeting a variety of arguably burdensome medical and constructional conditions and obtaining separate licensure.”
He concurred with Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens about her finding last year that two near-total abortion bans violate the state constitution's tenet on Wyomingites’ right to make their own healthcare decisions. Campbell wrote, “As Judge Owens found, the ability to make healthcare decisions is a fundamental right, as it was directly written into the State Constitution.”
Even as the law was paused, Burkhart said its effects have rippled throughout Wyoming.
“It’s hurt our patients, because they've been denied care, and even though we've referred patients out to other clinics, we don't fully know if they got there,” she said. “It has hurt us financially. We've looked at a couple of months of not operating and seeing people. It's hurt staff morale. So it's a great day that we can start seeing patients again.”
Campbell’s ruling also means Wyoming women will not be subject to a new ultrasound requirement passed in the recent legislative general session. HB 64 mandated that women seeking medication to end their pregnancies would need to have a transvaginal ultrasound two days before receiving abortion pills.
“As the judge himself said, a period of reflection, which is the 48-hour delay, serves no legitimate purpose,” said Christine Lichtenfels, the executive director of Chelsea’s Fund, a nonprofit focused on abortion in Wyoming that’s another plaintiff in the case. “He was very clear about that, and that's true. We've all known that. We all know the only purpose is to put a barrier. So we're very grateful that he was relying on common sense and the facts.”
On the ultrasound requirement, Campbell wrote “That a transvaginal ultrasound is necessary to obtain informed consent offends common sense.”
In the Natrona County hearing earlier this month, Senior Assistant Attorney General John J. Woykovsky defended the ultrasound law as a type of “informed consent.”
“Before a woman obtains a chemical abortion, she should have full information,” Woykovsky said. “And part of that information is an ability to visualize the fetus and the ability to hear the heartbeat.”
Transvaginal ultrasounds are done by inserting a wand-like device into a woman’s vagina to check for a fetal heartbeat. Abdominal ultrasounds, by contrast, are done on the outside of the body and are considered noninvasive.
Campbell continued, “The State Defendants assert that such practice could potentially identify ectopic pregnancies earlier; thus, generally promoting women's health. However, the fact that only women seeking abortions would benefit, corrodes that argument. The same can be said for the mandatory forty-eight (48) waiting period provision. A period of reflection, as characterized by the State Defendants, serves no legitimate purpose and no evidence further supporting this argument is before the Court.”
Fundamentally, Campbell said that the state had failed to show that the clinic regulations and ultrasound requirement are “necessary, reasonable or advance a compelling government interest.”
The injunction against the two laws will remain in place until Campbell’s final ruling, which could be months away. Future hearings in the case have not been scheduled.
Lichtenfels said she and the other plaintiffs will be closely watching the outcome of the state Supreme Court case having to do with the two near total abortion bans, because it may affect the outcome of the Natrona County case.
“If the Supreme Court rules in our favor, that the abortion bans are unconstitutional, then this will continue,” she said. “If the Supreme Court were to rule that the abortion bans were constitutional, then, of course, that would moot this whole case. It would mean the bans would be in effect.”
This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.
