CHEYENNE—The Wyoming House of Representatives voted Tuesday to override Gov. Mark Gordon’s veto of a bill to require patients to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound and a 48-hour waiting period before taking abortion medication.
Gordon vetoed House Bill 64, “Chemical abortions-ultrasound requirement“, Monday night, citing concerns over the bill’s invasive nature and its lack of exceptions for victims of rape or incest.
“Every year we continue to lose unborn babies in Wyoming,” Gordon wrote in his veto letter. “Making it easier for mothers to have babies in Wyoming and supporting them afterward is a far better course. Mandating this intimate, personally invasive, and often medically unnecessary procedure goes too far.”
House members had not previously discussed the bill’s lack of exceptions, though exceptions for victims of rape and incest are included in both of Wyoming’s 2023 abortion bans.
“What the bill still requires is, even if you are a victim of rape, you still have to have a transvaginal ultrasound, that is requiring sticking a wand up inside of you after you have already been raped,” House Minority Floor Leader Mike Yin of Jackson said on the floor Tuesday.
Before engaging in debate about the need for exceptions for victims of rape and incest, Freedom Caucus Chairwoman Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody, took issue with Yin’s word choice.
“I really wish people, members of this body, would quit calling it a wand. That’s not what it is. It’s a transvaginal transducer,” she said.
Rodriguez-Williams went on to say that getting an ultrasound before taking abortion medication is “a matter of life and death” and medical providers need to know how far along a pregnancy is “regardless of the situation that somebody finds themselves — that a woman might find herself in.”
An ultrasound, however, isn’t necessary to accurately estimate gestational age, according to a 2022 review of medication abortions by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
The bill’s language does not specify “transvaginal ultrasound,” Rep. Jayme Lien, R-Casper, pointed out on the floor.
“The bill just simply says ultrasound technology,” Lien said.
Yin acknowledged this fact but said it didn’t matter because the bill “still requires it.
“Because that’s the only way to fulfill the requirements of the legislation, is to use a transvaginal ultrasound,” he said. “That’s why you don’t hear the sponsor of the bill denying that it isn’t one. Because it is.”
Abdominal ultrasounds are also used to evaluate pregnancies, but transvaginal ultrasounds provide clearer images in early pregnancy.
Yin also pointed to an amendment voted down in the Senate that would waive the transvaginal ultrasound requirement “unless expressly requested by the pregnant woman.”
The bill’s main sponsor, Speaker of the House Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, has said the bill is needed to keep women safe. He reiterated that assertion Tuesday, along with other previously stated motivations.
“If there’s abortion that potentially could be prevented from this and a child’s life could be saved, I guess I’d have to, you know, figure out what the downside of that is,” Neiman said.
The House voted 45-16 with one excused to override the governor’s veto.
The Senate had not yet taken up the matter at publishing time. The upper chamber has until the end of session to make a decision. The session is scheduled to adjourn on Thursday.
I am disgusted with what my home state is doing to take away women’s right to making decisions for themselves. If a women wants any kind of abortion, that is noone’s business. Yet another move by religious zealots to control women. Appalling move back to the dark ages. Shame on those zealots for jamming government down women’s throats, and other places. Unacceptable!
“””Abdominal ultrasounds are also used to evaluate pregnancies, but transvaginal ultrasounds provide clearer images in early pregnancy.”””‘
Clearer images of a developing Human Being!
Then you should refrain from getting one.
Dave, do you believe that women should also be allowed to end their child’s life after birth as well?
The DNA of a Human “fetus” is distinctly DIFFERENT of the DNA from the mother. It is NOT “her body” it is a completely separate human being.
Are you a science denier?
Jack, You save all the babies you create and everyone else can do that who believe as you. But leave women alone who are making this difficult decision with her family and her doctor. I don’t know why you can’t see this is none of your business. This is painful all the way around for both sides of the issue. Men should take more precaution before making babies and Politicians, both men and women, should provide services for improved health services.
The Wyoming war on women continues. No wonder young people leave the state in droves.
100% correct. Thank you for this comment.
Leave women alone, you backward fools! Most women are far more intelligent than the morons you elect to “represent” you, at all levels of guvamint. Go tote your popguns in areas where they don’t belong to show what big “men” you are if your need for attention is so overwhelming…
Well at least the “daddies” won’t have to go through this invasive procedure. By the way, where are the men at in this process? After all it does take two.
With all of this done, maybe we can start taking care of the born.
It does take 2.
The men have to wait for the woman to decide whether it is their child together or an unwanted “mass of cells”.
Last I checked it was the woman’s bodily autonomy in question not the sperm donor.
So what should the REAL men in Wyoming do to support the ladies, or should you cower to the fake christians.