Plaintiffs suing to keep abortion legal in Wyoming have asked a judge to block a law that would ban medication abortions from going into effect on July 1.
This year, Wyoming lawmakers passed two laws touching upon abortion. One is the near total abortion ban which is currently paused until a decision is made in the courts. Meanwhile, Senate File 109 makes Wyoming the first state to ban the use of pills for abortions only and it is a separate law..
Jackson OB/GYN Dr. Giovannina Anthony is a plaintiff on the near total abortion ban. She said all the abortions she provides are medication abortions.
“If Senate File 109 becomes law on July 1, then we can't provide any medical abortion in Wyoming. So we had to go after that separately,” Anthony said.
The law not only outlaws the usage of the pills, but it also makes it illegal to prescribe, dispense or sell medications for the purpose of performing an abortion. Anyone who violates the rule could be imprisoned and/or fined up to $9,000.
Anthony said the medications that are used to perform abortion are also used for other non abortion related treatments, and that the law is extremely vague
“I don't think pharmacists would be willing to dispense them. I don't think physicians would be willing to use them,” Anthony said. “And I don't know how the law would be enforced. But it will create a lot of fear and doubt. Appropriate usages of those medications are many not just to use for medical abortion.”
Anthony said one of those usages is to induce labor.
If the temporary restraining order is granted by the judge, plaintiffs hope that the medication ban would be part of the current case over the near total abortion ban.
