The Wyoming Supreme Court has struck down two laws passed in 2023 designed to protect unborn children.
In a 4 to 1 decision, the court rejected House Bill 152, the “Life is a Human Right Act,” and Senate File 109, which prohibited chemical abortions, with Justice Kari Gray casting the lone dissent.
The “Life is a Human Right Act” would have protected unborn children except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the mother’s life. Senate File 109 would have made Wyoming the first state to specifically ban abortion drugs with similar exceptions.
The court’s majority ruled that Article 1, Section 38 of the Wyoming Constitution, a 2012 amendment, guarantees adults the right to make their own health care decisions including abortion and applied the strictest judicial standard known as strict scrutiny to the laws. Justice Gray dissented, arguing the legislature’s restrictions were reasonable and necessary to protect prenatal life and should have been upheld.
Governor Mark Gordon called the ruling “profoundly unfortunate” and urged a constitutional amendment to restore protections for unborn children. The case was brought by abortion advocacy groups and four women in 2023.
Read more here.