Casper Star-Tribune: Judge blocks Wyoming’s first-in-nation ban on medication abortion
Medication abortion will remain legal in Wyoming for now after Teton County District Court Judge Melissa Owens blocked the state’s ban on abortion pills on June 22. Owens is seen here on June 2 in Jackson
By Andy Rose and Kaanita Iyer, CNN
(CNN) — Medication abortion will remain legal in Wyoming for now after a district judge on Thursday blocked the state’s ban on abortion pills, according to the Casper Star-Tribune.
The law, intended to take effect July 1, would have prohibited the prescription, sale and use of abortion pills – the first such measure in the nation. It joins the state’s near-total abortion ban, which has also been halted as legal challenges play out.
The Teton County District Court clerk’s office confirmed to CNN that district judge Melissa Owens had held a three-hour hearing in the case Thursday and issued a verbal order from the bench. The order had not yet been written and filed as of Thursday evening, according to the office.
After hearing from attorneys on both sides, Owens issued the pause on enforcement of the abortion pills measure, adding that Wyoming residents want to make their own health care decisions, the Star-Tribune said..
“Essentially the government under this law is making the decision for a woman rather than the woman making her own health care choice, which is what the overwhelming majority in Wyoming decided that we should get to do,” Owens said during the hearing, the newspaper reported.
Owens had also temporarily blocked the state’s near-total ban in March, with a full trial set for April 2024.
The abortion pills ban, signed by Republican Gov. Mark Gordon in March, states that “it shall be unlawful to prescribe, dispense, distribute, sell or use any drug for the purpose of procuring or performing an abortion on any person.” Woman who received a medication abortion could not be criminally prosecuted under the law, which includes exceptions for medically necessary treatment to preserve the woman’s life or health and in cases of sexual assault or incest.
At the time of its passage, NARAL Pro-Choice America slammed the “first-of-its-kind ban” as evidence that “there’s no stone that anti-choice extremists will leave unturned.”
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