JACKSON, Wyo. — Teton County’s Ninth District Court Judge Melissa Owens issued a temporary restraining order today, March 22, halting the enforcement of the “Life is a Human Right Act,” Wyoming’s new law that aims to ban abortion.
“Wyomingites voted into law that they have a fundamental right to make their own healthcare decision and, by doing so they also agreed that the state can put reasonable and necessary restrictions on that, as long as there is no undue government infringement, upon those rights,” Owens said. “The legislature declaring that abortion is not healthcare takes away from the duty of this court to decide constitutional questions of law, and that violates the separation of powers.”
Owens concluded by saying, “the Court needs to further inquire if abortion is healthcare” and if the plaintiffs can establish that abortions are healthcare, “then further inquiry needs to be made if the new law is a reasonable and necessary restriction and has not placed undue government infringement on the citizens.”
The six plaintiffs in the case include the same individuals who won an injunction last summer, halting the previous abortion ban, known as the trigger ban. The Life is a Human Right Act invalidates that piece of legislation and voids the court case.
Governor Mark Gordon signed the trigger ban in 2022 but opted to allow the Life is a Human Right bill to become law without his signature.
Attorney John Robinson, who represents the plaintiffs in the case, pointed out Gordon’s decision to not sign the bill into law.
“He said he understood the intent of the legislation but said, quote, ‘in practice, this bill would instead complicate and delay the resolution of these central and foundational constitutional questions,’ now he’s not a legal authority; he’s the executive for the state,” Robinson said. “it just emphasizes the unworkable nature and the vague nature of this statute.”
The hearing lasted over three hours.
