Abortion in Wyoming

In 1950, the state legislature passed a law stating that a woman who had an abortion or actively sought to have an abortion regardless of whether she went through with it was guilty of a criminal offense.[8] It is not clear how often the law was enforced. A bill protecting women's access to abortion was introduced in 1997 but did not succeed in getting a floor vote.[9]

A fetal heartbeat bill, HB 97, was introduced in the Wyoming House of Representatives in January 2013 by Kendell Kroeker; however, in February 2013 the bill was struck down by a house committee in a 4–5 vote.[10][11] The state legislature was one of five states nationwide that tried to pass such a bill that year.[12] On July 1, 2017, a law passed by the state legislature went into effect the prohibited the sale of fetal tissue.  Another law that went into effect that day required abortion service providers to give women seeking abortions an ultrasound, but it had no enforcement component.[7] As of May 14, 2019, the state prohibited abortions after the fetus was viable, generally some point between week 24 and 28. This period uses a standard defined by the US Supreme Court in 1973 with the Roe v. Wade ruling.[13]

The US Supreme Court's decision in 1973's Roe v. Wade ruling meant the state could not regulate abortion in the first trimester.[8] However, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, No. 19-1392, 597 U.S. ___ (2022) later in 2022.[14][15] However, a judge in Wyoming found that abortion bans violate the state constitution's clause providing for the right of Wyomingites to make their own health care decisions [16]

Number of abortion clinics in Wyoming by year

Between 1982 and 1992, the total number of abortion clinics in the state declined by three, going from eight to five.[9] In 1990, family practice Emerg-A-Care opened in Jackson as urgent care so that tourists in the area would feel comfortable visiting if they needed medical treatment. Among the services they offered were abortion services.[7]

In 2014, there officially was one abortion clinic in the state;[17] 96% of counties in the state did not have an abortion clinic, and 96% of women in the state aged 15–44 lived in a county without an abortion clinic.[18] In March 2016, there was only one Planned Parenthood clinic in the state.[19] After Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains switched from directly billing women to directly billing Medicaid in 2016, they ran into funding bills as Medicaid has low reimbursement rates. Consequently, they were forced to close three clinics in Colorado and Wyoming in July 2017.  The closure of the Wyoming clinic meant the state had no more Planned Parenthood clinics, making Wyoming one of two states without a Planned Parenthood clinic.[20] North Dakota, Wyoming, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia were the only six states as of July 21, 2017, not to have a Planned Parenthood clinic that offered abortion services.[20] In 2017, there was still only one abortion clinic in Wyoming, but there were claims of two other providers in Jackson Hole that privately would perform abortions for existing patients. These health centers provided around one to five abortions a year.[7] Emerg-A-Care also served women from eastern Idaho. Less than 0.5% of their practice involved providing abortion services. Of the abortions performed in 2017, 80% were medical.[7]

In 2020, Emerg-A-Care was sold to St. John's Health.[21]

Women from the state participated in rallies supporting abortion rights as part of the Stop the Bans (#StoptheBans) effort in May 2019. Wyoming Equality was one of the organizers for the Cheyenne #StoptheBans protest that drew women from across the state.[29]

In 1994, a domestic terrorist responsible for attacks in multiple states bombed the Emerg-A-Care health center in Jackson during the night, causing large amounts of smoke damage that resulted in the clinic being closed for several weeks.[7]