Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: A bortion will stay legal in Wyoming after the state’s top court struck down laws that placed a near-total ban on the procedure. On January 6 the court ruled that Wyoming’s anti-abortion legislation, including the nation’s first ban on abortion pills, were in violation of the state’s constitution.
“A woman has a fundamental right to make her own health care decisions, including the decision to have an abortion,” the court wrote in a 4-1 decision. Lawyers for the state had argued that abortion could not violate Wyoming’s constitution because it does not constitute health care.
Wyoming is one of many states in which legal fights over abortion bans have ensued since 2022 – when the Supreme Court reversed the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade judgement legalising abortion.
More than a dozen states have since enacted near-total bans on abortions, several of which have been put on hold by the courts.
In Wyoming, the case against the state was brought by four women, including two obstetricians, an abortion advocacy group, and the state’s only abortion provider, Wellspring Health Access in the city of Casper. The state’s Supreme Court looked at two laws – one banning abortion in all cases except to protect a pregnant woman’s life or in cases involving rape or incest, and another banning abortion pills explicitly. Both laws were quashed on January 6.
The court wrote, “Although a woman’s decision to have an abortion ends the fetal life, the decision is one she makes concerning her own health care.” The Wyoming bill was passed by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature in 2023.
