Abortion was allowed again in Wyoming on Monday after a judge suspended two state laws seeking to ban the procedure.
The conservative state has only one abortion clinic — in the 58,000-person city of Casper — and state lawmakers have made several attempts to outlaw abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
However, Judge Thomas Campbell on Monday temporarily blocked two laws that prevented Wellspring Health Access from offering abortions, local news outlet WyoFile reported.
Earlier this year, Wyoming’s legislature passed laws requiring abortion clinics to be licensed as outpatient surgical centers and to provide women without ultrasounds before abortions. The laws were immediately challenged by abortion rights groups.
The state “failed [to demonstrate] that the laws are necessary, reasonable or advance a compelling government interest,” Campbell wrote, according to WyoFile. He issued a temporary injunction to block the laws while the larger lawsuit proceeds.
Wyoming had passed a trigger law to ban abortion when Roe v. Wade was overturned, but it was temporarily blocked in 2023 and then found in violation of the state constitution lin 2024. The Wyoming Supreme Court has heard arguments in the case but isn’t expected to rule for several months.
In 2012, Wyoming amended its constitution, enshrining the right of adults to make their own health care decisions. That amendment has been cited by multiple state judges who have rejected the abortion bans.
With News Wire Services
