Wyoming nation’s first abortion pill ban blocked before it goes into effect

CHEYENNE, Wyoming (AP) — Abortion pills will remain legal in Wyoming for now, after a judge ruled Thursday that the state’s first law to ban them will not go into effect on July 1 as scheduled while the lawsuit continues. .

Wyoming lawyers failed to show that allowing the ban to take effect early would not harm the plaintiffs in the lawsuit before the lawsuit is resolved, Teton County Judge Melissa Owens ruled.

While other states have instituted de facto medication bans by broadly banning abortion, Wyoming in March became the first US state to specifically ban abortion pills.

Two nonprofit organizations, including an abortion clinic that opened in Casper in April; and four women, including two obstetricians, have sued to challenge the law. They asked Owens to suspend the ban while their lawsuit unfolds.

The plaintiffs are also suing to stop a new near-total ban on abortion in the state.

Both new laws were enacted after the US Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last year. Since then, some 25 million women and adolescents have been subjected to stricter controls to terminate their pregnancies or almost total bans on the procedure.

Owens combined the two Wyoming lawsuits against the new restrictions into a single case. Owens suspended the state’s blanket abortion ban days after it went into effect in March.

THIS IS A LAST MINUTE UPDATE. The previous AP story follows below.

CHEYENNE, Wyoming (AP) — Wyoming’s country’s first ban on abortion pills will go before a state judge Thursday as the court considers whether the ban should go into effect as planned on July 1 or be suspended pending the outcome of a lawsuit.

While other states have instituted de facto medication bans by broadly banning abortion, Wyoming in March became the first US state to specifically ban abortion pills. The US Supreme Court ruled in April that access to one of the two pills, mifepristone, can continue while the litigants seek to overturn the Food and Drug Administration’s approval.

Two nonprofit organizations in Wyoming, including an abortion clinic that opened in Casper in April; and four women, including two obstetricians, have sued to stop Wyoming to curb access to abortion pills. On Thursday, Teton County Judge Melissa Owens will hear arguments about what should happen as the lawsuit unfolds.

Wellspring Health Access, Wyoming’s first full-service abortion clinic in years, offers abortion pills among its services. Previously, only one other clinic in Wyoming, a women’s health center in Jackson, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) away, offered the option.

The same plaintiffs seeking to keep abortion pills legal in Wyoming are also suing to stop a new near-total ban on abortion in the state. Both new laws were enacted after the The United States Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last year. Since then, some 25 million women and adolescents of childbearing age have been subjected to stricter controls to terminate their pregnancies or almost total bans on the procedure.

Owens combined the two Wyoming lawsuits into a single case. Just days after the state’s blanket abortion ban went into effect in March, the judge suspended it to keep abortion legal in Wyoming for now.

Wyoming’s two new abortion laws allow exceptions to save the life of a pregnant woman and for cases of rape or incest that are reported to the police.

In recent years, medical abortions using two types of pills, typically taken days apart, have become the preferred method of terminating a pregnancy in the US, in part because the process offers a Less invasive alternative to surgical abortions. Until Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon signed legislation banning medical abortions, no state had passed a law specifically banning abortion pills, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

However, 13 states enacted blanket abortion bans that included medical abortions and 15 states already had limited access to the pills.

Wyoming officials have vowed to “vigorously defend” the state’s new laws, while opponents say they infringe on women’s basic rights.