Wyoming doctors and abortion providers seeking to stop two new anti-abortion laws from going into effect refiled their case in a Natrona County court this week after being dismissed by a Teton County judge.
The state’s only abortion clinic, Wellspring, in Casper, has not taken in new patients since Gov. Mark Gordon signed one of the two bills into law last month, according to court filings. That law requires Wellspring to be licensed as an ambulatory surgical center — health care facilities that perform surgeries but are not hospitals. The classification comes with Department of Health inspections and rules and regulations, such as building codes. Critics see the law as carefully crafted to force Wellspring’s closure.
Wellspring’s lawsuit, in which it is joined by doctors, nurses and a fund that helps Wyoming women access abortion health care, has bounced between courts since Gordon signed that bill.
A judge has yet to issue a ruling on whether to block the new laws from taking effect pending judicial review, and so the clinic has remained closed to Wyoming women seeking in-clinic abortions. According to the plaintiffs’ court filings, Wellspring referred 56 women to providers out of state in the first five days of the closure.
Plaintiffs first filed their case in Natrona County on Feb. 27, the day Gordon signed the clinic restrictions into law. But, after five business days passed without a response to their request for an emergency hearing in Natrona County, the plaintiffs pulled the case from that court, according to an attorney for the plaintiff doctors.
Plaintiffs then filed the lawsuit in Teton County, where 9th District Court Judge Melissa Owens in 2024 ruled against two total bans on abortion that the Wyoming Legislature had passed previously. Those bans are now in front of the Wyoming Supreme Court, but the Legislature has continued passing new regulations to block access to abortions and drive Wellspring out of the state.
The second new law Wellspring and its co-plaintiffs are challenging in this year’s lawsuit requires a transvaginal ultrasound and then a 48-hour wait before someone can receive abortion pills in the state. There is no medical reason for that ultrasound, opponents of the law say, which is designed to discourage women from seeking abortions.
Gordon vetoed that bill, but the Legislature voted to override his rejection and it became law.
Lawmakers behind the bills argue they are trying to keep women safe, though Wyoming Speaker of the House Chip Nieman has said that he hopes the ultrasound bill, at least, gets women to rethink their abortions.
Shifting the newest lawsuit to Owens’ courtroom drew accusations of “forum shopping” by state Senior Attorney General John Woykovsky, who is representing the state in its defense of the Legislature’s handiwork. But if quicker action from a friendlier judge was the plaintiffs’ goal, the strategy did not work.
On Friday, Owens threw the case out of her court and told the plaintiffs that Natrona County was the proper venue. She made the ruling from the bench after a 90-minute hearing in which Woykovsky argued that Natrona County District Judge Dan Forgey had not received proper proof the defendants had been served in the case.
That same day, plaintiffs filed their case again in Natrona County and are awaiting a response from Forgey, according to court filings WyoFile reviewed Tuesday. The civil complaint seeking an injunction is itself unchanged. All of the defendants have been served and acknowledged receiving notice of the case. On Monday, plaintiffs again asked for a scheduling conference to put an emergency hearing on Forgey’s calendar.
“The harm that will be endured by [the state] by issuance of the injunction, (if any), are far outweighed by the irreparable harms plaintiffs will continue to suffer,” under the new laws, John Robinson, the plaintiff’s lead attorney, wrote in a March 21 filing with Natrona County.
Dismissed.