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Two conflicting court rulings on a common abortion medication have put access to the drug in doubt, potentially limiting even further the availability of reproductive health care in parts of the Mountain West.
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Cody Regional Health is adding a new program to their Women’s Health and Nursery Department. With this addition, infants will be examined by doctors in Denver and Billings through video and audio to provide recommendations for treatment or evaluate the need to transfer them to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
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Back in May of 2022, a women’s reproductive health clinic in Casper that will also provide abortions was preparing to open when it was set on fire. Over 10 months later, the Casper Police Department has arrested a suspect.
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A bill that defines abortion as not healthcare and criminalizes providers who perform abortions has passed both houses in the Wyoming Legislature. If signed by the governor, this bill immediately becomes law and the current abortion ban that is being held up in the courts will be void. Lawmakers for and against it have stated that this bill will most likely be immediately questioned.
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Two bills related to limiting access to abortion were introduced to their second house of chambers committees and passed on Thursday, Feb. 23, just one day short of the deadline to come out of its second house committee. Although both passed with recommended amendments.
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After much debate in the Wyoming House of Representatives, a bill that would enact even stricter abortion laws than another bill currently tied up in court passed on its third reading. An adopted amendment addressed some of the lawmakers' questions about the need for it.
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The Mountain West region continues to be divided over abortion rights in the wake of the overturning of Roe vs. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court last year. Some state lawmakers want to further protect the rights of people seeking abortion care, while others are looking to make it more challenging for residents to get the medical procedure.
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The Wyoming House of Representatives passed a first reading of a bill that would create an even stricter abortion ban, however, some pro-life lawmakers feared its constitutionality.
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Doctors have always been hard to find and keep in a rural state like Wyoming. So the state created incentives like WWAMI (which stands for the states served by the UW School of Medicine: Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho) to try to get Wyomingites to come back and practice in their home state after medical school. The program has been successful, but recent bills going through the legislature are causing some of those in the program to decide not to come back and help fill the physician gap.
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A few of the states with the most home births are in the Mountain West, and the region also includes two states that saw some of the country's largest increases from 2019 to 2020.