Hayen, Wyo. – Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon signed a bill Friday night banning abortion pills in the state and also allowed a separate measure banning abortions to become law without his signature.
In a statement, Gordon expressed concern that the latter legislation, called the Life is a Human Right Act, would result in a lawsuit that would “delay any resolution of the constitutionality of abortion bans in Wyoming.”
He noted that earlier in the day, plaintiffs in an ongoing lawsuit challenged the new law in case the veto was not issued.
“I believe this question needs to be settled as quickly as possible so that the abortion issue in Wyoming can be finally settled, and best by a vote of the people,” Gordon, a Republican, said in a statement.
The Wyoming governor’s decision on abortion pills came to center stage in Texas this week, where a federal judge raised questions about a Christian group’s effort to overturn decades-old US approval of mifepristone, a key abortion drug. Was.
Antonio Serrano, advocacy director for the Wyoming ACLU, criticized the governor’s decision to sign the law in a statement.
“A person’s health, not politics, should guide important medical decisions — including the decision to have an abortion,” Serrano said.
The combination of two pills with mifepristone and another drug is the most common form of abortion in the US.
Medical abortion became the preferred method of terminating pregnancy in the US even before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a decision that protected abortion rights for nearly five decades.
Fifteen states already limit access to abortion pills, with six states requiring a visit to an in-person physician. Those laws could face court challenges; States have long had authority over how physicians, pharmacists, and other providers practice medicine.
States also set rules for telemedicine consultations that are used to prescribe drugs. This generally means that health providers in states that ban abortion pills can face penalties such as fines or license suspension for trying to send pills through the mail.
Women are already traveling across state lines to places where the abortion pill is easier to access. This trend is expected to increase.
Since the overturning of Roe last June, abortion restrictions have been up to the states and the landscape has changed rapidly. Thirteen states now ban abortion at any point in pregnancy, and another, Georgia, bans it when cardiac activity is detected or at about six weeks gestation.
Courts have blocked enforcement of abortion bans or deeper restrictions in Arizona, Indiana, Montana, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming. Idaho courts have forced the state to allow abortions during medical emergencies.
