A strict law on abortion pills in Wyoming is being challenged by pro-choice supporters who on Tuesday filed an amended lawsuit to prevent the restrictions from taking effect.
Wellspring Health Access, a nonprofit organization seeking to open Wyoming’s second abortion clinic, filed the lawsuit days after Republican Gov. Mark Gordon signed into law the medication-abortion law. The law will go into effect July 1, unless a court intervenes.
“Wyomingites deserve access to the full spectrum of reproductive health care, including both surgical and drug abortion, which is why we are fighting to keep drug abortion legal in Wyoming,” Julie Burkart, president of Wellspring Health Access, said in a statement.
This new lawsuit joins another effort to block a separate sweeping abortion law that went into effect Sunday in Wyoming without Gordon’s signature. A Teton County District Court judge will hear arguments on that law on Wednesday.
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Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon signed into law the abortion pill law on Friday. (Rhianna Gelhart/The Wyoming Tribune Eagle via AP, File)
According to the lawsuit, the two laws cause confusion about what is and what is not allowed. If they go into effect, “the fundamental rights of Wyoming women and their families will be taken away by the state government and those rights will cease to exist,” the amended lawsuit said.
Each law contains exceptions for medical emergencies that endanger the mother’s life and for cases of rape or incest for which there is a police report.
Wyoming’s law on abortion pills is the strictest in the country. Thirteen states effectively banned drug-induced abortion based on laws enacted after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and 15 states had already restricted access to the pills.
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Police stand at the scene of a nighttime fire that severely damaged a building being renovated into a new abortion clinic in Casper, Wyoming, on May 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Mead Gruver, File)
Six states — Arizona Indiana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota and South Carolina — require a physician to personally administer abortions.
Drug abortions are the most common abortion procedure in the US. They consist of a regimen of two drugs – mifepristone (mifeprex) and misoprostol – to effectively induce miscarriage and terminate the pregnancy. Both drugs are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
A separate lawsuit in Texas is seeking to overturn the 2000 FDA approval of mifepristone.
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Boxes of the drug mifepristone stand on a shelf at the West Alabama Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa on March 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Allen G. Ras, File)
Wyoming has only one abortion provider, a women’s health clinic in Jackson that only provides medicated abortions, but canceled appointments after the state law went into effect this week. Teton County District Court Judge Melissa Owens will hold a hearing Wednesday to consider whether she should block that new law while the legal challenge over it continues.
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A spokesman for Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill told The Associated Press that she “will vigorously defend the legality of this law, just as it does with all statutes when their constitutionality is challenged.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Chris Pandolfo is a writer for Fox News Digital. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @ChrisCPandolfo.
