A judge may rule on Wyoming's abortion laws, including the first explicit US ban on abortion pills

CHEYENNE, Wyo.– A Wyoming judge will decide Thursday whether to strike down, uphold or keep the state's abortion ban, including its first explicit ban on using drugs to end a pregnancy.

Any decision on the bans during or after a preliminary conference before Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens in Jackson would likely be appealed to the Wyoming Supreme Court. Both sides have asked Owens to rule without holding a trial set to begin April 15.

So far, Owens has been sympathetic to arguments that the bans violate women's rights under the state constitution. Three times in the past year and a half, the judge has blocked the laws from coming into effect while they were being challenged in court.

One of the laws prohibits abortion, except to protect the life of a pregnant woman or in cases of rape and incest. The other made Wyoming the only state to explicitly ban abortion pills, although other states have instituted de facto bans on the medication by broadly banning abortion.

The laws were challenged by four women, including two midwives, and two nonprofit organizations. One of the groups, Wellspring Health Access, opened in April as the state's first full-service abortion clinic in years after a 2022 arson.

They argued the bans would harm their health, well-being and livelihoods, claims disputed by lawyers for the state. The women and nonprofits also argued that the bans violated a 2012 constitutional amendment stating that qualified Wyoming residents have the right to make their own health care decisions, an argument Owens said was valid.

Wyoming voters approved the amendment, fearing government overreach following the passage of the federal Affordable Care Act and initial requirements for people to have health insurance.

Lawyers for the state argued that health care, under the amendment, did not include abortion.

In addition, the US Supreme Court will hear a dispute over mifepristone, one of two drugs used in the US in the most common method of terminating a pregnancy.

Wyoming has only two clinics that offer abortions: Wellspring Health Access in Casper and the Women's Health and Family Care Clinic in Jackson. The Jackson clinic only offers medication abortions and will close Friday due to rising costs. Doctors at the clinic have said they will resume providing medication abortions elsewhere in Jackson in the coming months, if allowed.