Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon has signed into law the first explicit ban on abortion pills in the country since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer.
Gordon, a Republican, signed the bill Friday night while allowing a separate measure restricting abortion to become law without his signature.
The pills are already banned in 13 states that have outright bans on all forms of abortion, and 15 states that already have limited access to abortion pills. Until now, no state had passed legislation specifically banning such pills, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
A group seeking to open abortion and women’s health clinics in Casper said it is evaluating legal options.
“We are disappointed and outraged that these laws will eliminate access to basic health care, including safe, effective medication abortion,” Julie Burkhart, president of Wellspring Health Access, said in a statement Saturday.
The clinic, which was prevented from opening last year by a firebombing, is one of two nonprofits suing to block an earlier Wyoming abortion ban. No arrests have been made, and organizers say the clinic is tentatively scheduled to open in April, depending on the legal status of abortion in Wyoming.
The Republican governor’s decision on the two measures comes after the issue of access to abortion pills went up in a Texas court this week. A federal judge there raised questions about a Christian group’s effort to overturn a decades-old US approval of mifepristone, a key abortion drug.
By the Supreme Court in Roe v. Medical abortion had become the preferred method to end pregnancy in the US even before Wade was overturned, a decision that protected abortion rights for nearly five decades. A combination of two pills of mifepristone and another drug The most common form of abortion in
Wyoming’s ban on abortion pills is set to take effect in July, pending any legal action that could delay it. The bill does not specify an implementation date for the comprehensive legislation banning all abortions that Gordon would allow going into law.
With an earlier ban tied to the court, abortion is currently legal in the state until viability, or when the fetus can survive outside the womb.
In a statement, Gordon expressed concern that the latter legislation, called the Life is a Human Right Act, would result in a lawsuit that would “delay any resolution of the constitutionality of abortion bans in Wyoming.”
He noted that earlier in the day, plaintiffs in an ongoing lawsuit challenged the new law in case the veto was not issued.
“I believe that this question needs to be settled as soon as possible so that the issue of abortion in Wyoming can be finally settled, and that is for the best,” Gordon said in a statement.
Antonio Serrano, advocacy director for the Wyoming ACLU, criticized Gordon’s decision to sign the ban on abortion pills in a statement.
“A person’s health, not politics, should guide important medical decisions — including the decision to have an abortion,” Serrano said.
Of the 15 states that have limited access to pills, six require a visit to a personal physician. Those laws could face court challenges; States have long had authority over how physicians, pharmacists, and other providers practice medicine.
States also set rules for telemedicine consultations that are used to prescribe drugs. Generally, this means that health providers in states that ban abortion pills can face penalties such as fines or license suspensions for trying to send pills through the mail.
Women are already traveling across state lines to places where the abortion pill is easier to access. This trend is expected to increase.
Since the reversal of Roe in June, abortion restrictions have been up to the states, and the landscape has changed rapidly. Thirteen states now enforce a ban on abortion at any point in pregnancy, and another, Georgia, bans it once cardiac activity is detected, or at about six weeks gestation.
Courts have blocked the enforcement of abortion bans or deeper restrictions in Arizona, Indiana, Montana, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah, and Wyoming. Idaho courts have forced the state to allow abortions during medical emergencies.