On Tuesday, the Equality State lived up to its title.
Opinion
I shrieked when I read the opinion, teared up a bit and then my phone started blowing up. Texts, emails and notifications began rolling in from friends across the state and the country expressing unified joy. A simple truth we have long advocated for has been affirmed and spelled out in plain language by our Wyoming Supreme Court: Abortion is health care.
Now, I recognize that not everyone reacted with unbridled joy and relief. Abortion is an emotionally charged subject, one that, in an ideal world, would be approached with compassion, respect and recognition of the fact that pregnancy can sometimes be dangerous and filled with unforeseen complications.
That is not how some of our elected officials chose to respond, with many instead lambasting the ruling and even attacking the justices themselves. Secretary of State Chuck Gray attempted to paint the justices as “leftwing activists” whose decision was “totally out of touch with the Wyoming Constitution.”
Might I suggest it is he who is totally out of touch?
In 2012, Wyoming voters passed an amendment to the state constitution — Article 1, Section 38 — which guarantees each competent adult “the right to make his or her own health care decisions.” Article 1 of the constitution establishes the core freedoms we all enjoy as Wyoming citizens. We, the people, chose to enshrine the right to make our own health care decisions as one of these core freedoms.
Although Justice Gray issued the sole dissenting opinion in the ruling, all five justices on the high court agreed that “the decision whether to terminate or continue a pregnancy is a health care decision under Article 1, Section 38.”
I am not an attorney or a constitutional scholar, and I will not attempt to provide a more detailed explanation as to why the abortion bans pushed by the state are unconstitutional. The justices provided a thorough and thoughtful 65-page explanation.
I am a uterus-owning woman of birthing age who has found it incredibly difficult to attain basic reproductive health care in Wyoming.
I live in Casper, which has some of the “best” health care access in the state. Still, when I needed to seek routine care — not concerning pregnancy or abortion — the only provider I could find to see me in a reasonable timeframe was the Wellspring Health Access clinic. Wellspring is the only clinic in Wyoming to provide procedural abortions.
We are unbelievably fortunate to have Wellspring as a resource in our community. Almost half of our counties lack a practicing OB-GYN. The pause in labor and delivery services at Banner Platte County Hospital last fall marked the fourth labor and delivery ward closure since 2022 due to “physician recruitment challenges.”
As a vast state with a small population, we face obvious hurdles in recruiting medical talent. Uncertainty caused by abortion bans has hampered our ability to recruit even further. OB-GYNs do not want to practice in states where they face criminal penalties for providing the full standard of care, which includes abortion.
We have seen this horrifying reality play out in Idaho, which lost more than a third of its OB-GYNs between 2022 and 2024 after passing one of the strictest abortion bans in the country.
The Wyoming Legislature and the governor’s office are aware that our maternity care deserts present a major challenge to the state’s economy and standard of living. They’ve even identified maternal care as a policy priority.
Yet, despite their purported interest in addressing the problem, their actions have repeatedly exacerbated our crisis. The Freedom Caucus consistently targets Wellspring for closure, a clinic that provides not just abortion care, but a full array of necessary reproductive care to our communities.
How can we hope to attract and keep young families in the state if we cannot provide basic health services?
Instead of increasing Medicaid reimbursement rates for obstetrics (a third of births in Wyoming are covered by Medicaid) in the 2025 interim sessions, members of the Joint Labor, Health & Social Services committee chose to advance legislation that shields fake clinics from oversight.
And now the governor has called on the Legislature to propose a constitutional amendment during this year’s time-constrained budget session to specifically carve out abortion from health care protections.
As abortion bans have rolled out across the US since 2022, we have seen pregnant women suffer and die, even in states with supposed “exceptions” in their bans. The reasons a woman may need to seek an abortion are endlessly varied and unique to her situation. But most of all, they are none of the government’s business.
Wyomingites already voted to keep the government out of our health care decisions. If we must vote on another constitutional amendment, I have confidence that the people will again decide to protect our freedom to make the best decisions for ourselves.
Genesis 2:7
Sounds like a lazy man, as he creates one dude, then after that, women have to do all the work.
You might want to read that book a little closer, because what you have been sold or profess is not correct.
OK, I read Genesis 2:7. It’s the well-known verse about the creation of Adam, allegedly the first man. Reading further brings us to Genesis 2:21-23 that covers the creation of the first woman Eve from Adam’s rib etc. Misogynists generally interpret this to mean that Eve is somehow subservient to Adam because she was made from a part of him or some such tangled logic.
But let’s go back a bit to an earlier verse, Genesis 1:27. This is where God creates “male AND female” in his own image. Uh oh, we have a problem. It seems Adam had a first wife. She is not given a name in the bible but wading through a mishmash of Jewish mysticism etc. reveals Adam’s first partner is called Lilith. Lilith later rebels after refusing to mate with Adam in the then only acceptable way – the missionary position. Lilith wanted to be on top.
Because she stood up for herself and would not be subservient to Adam, she is denounced as a demon and ejected from the Garden of Eden. Throughout the ages, the staggering amount of opprobrium heaped on Lilith for this insubordination is, as they say, of biblical proportions.
It’s no wonder that Lilith became a hero of the modern feminist movement.
So well said, Britt! I had 5 pregnancies that went south and quickly received the care I needed to end them, for which I was grateful. Another one, however, because of one doctor’s personal beliefs, nearly cost me my life.
Who of you so opposed to abortion are willing to take responsibility for the damages to women, children and families caused by taking that responsibility away from the women who are truly the only responsible ones?
Monica, “those opposed to abortion take responsibility”???
Not taking responsibility for the consequences of ones actions probably leads to 90% of abortions. “Convenience”/timing/money/work/etc. is essentially the reason cited by numerous studies on the #1 reason why women got an abortion 75-90% of the time.
It isnt a coincidence that Roe shortly followed the “sexual revolution” of the 1960s. “Free love” isnt free if a child is the result of ones actions.
I like your comments about teaching values to our young people but how can we do that when our 2 senators, representative, state officials and president have no principles. They all cheer the killing of some but protect others. Thank for your comments
Well-stated!
One essential need that never seems to be addressed, however is the education of young people, both minors and young adults, about personal decision-making. Moral decisions can only be based on a personal value system that takes years to develop. In previous generations, young folks learned from parents and family. That process began to break down when I was a 5th-grader and boys were separated from girls in school for “the talk.” My mother was livid, and insisted on sitting in; she was mollified when nothing was presented that she had not already discussed with me. When my own children reached the same grade, “the talk” had already reached them at home years before, due to inaccurate playground conversations they had brought to my attention. My kids are now parents. My grandsons talk about “having girlfriends” and “breaking up.” It’s almost time for “the talk.”
None of my kids fully embraced the entirety of the value system we practiced at home when they were growing up. Now, their own family values are colored not only by those they grew up with, but also by those their spouses brought along. I fervently hope that my kids are creating an environment in their homes where the development of their unique system of family values will thrive. I know, though, that most families in the current generations of younger people do not spend as much time together. It takes at least two salaries to survive in the current world. Other caregivers or care systems contribute to (or detract from) the developing value systems of children. It’s difficult to identify just what today’s children are learning about how personal decisions are and should be made. They may have little time to learn from their parents. Input (not necessarily beneficial) comes from so many other sources — not just from kids on the playground.
I encourage Wyoming United to embrace this essential need for quality education about family values. This is an excruciatingly difficult task to take on.
Abortion ends a Human Beings life.
If you, or SCOTUS, actually understood the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, you would not be allowed or rude enough to ask whether a citizen is pregnant. I will continue to ask why you think neighbor’s have the right to manage another’s womb? It is disgusting that US Citizens have voted to give power to the State to manage each individual womb. That is the worst interpretation of our Rights and yet here you are.
Greg, there is a SEPARATE living human being with completely different DNA from its mother this effects, inside that womb. This isnt about a womans womb, it’s about the human being inside of it.
Maybe SCOTUS, since you’re so obsessed with them, should rule on where exactly it is ok to end a human beings life. In a hospital nursery, is that ok? What about in someone’s private home?
Location, location, location.
It is very much about a woman’s womb, and when you get one of your own, you may make decisions about what happens there. It is no one’s business how women handle their health and their womb except those women and their doctor. In addition, every kind of health care is harder to get (and pay for) in Wyoming and in the entire country thanks to the current administration.