News – Sheridan Media
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The Wyoming Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that anti-abortion laws passed by the State Legislature in 2023 were in violation of the State’s Constitution. According to the summary issued by the Wyoming Supreme Court, the Wyoming Legislature passed a law in 2023 called the Life is a Human Right Act, which prohibits people from performing abortions in Wyoming, with certain exceptions. The Legislature also passed a law making it illegal “to prescribe, dispense, distribute, sell or use any drug for the purpose of procuring or performing an abortion on any person.” That law also contains certain exceptions.
Immediately after these laws took effect, a group of medical professionals, two nonprofit corporations, and an individual woman (the Plaintiffs) sued the State and those responsible for enforcing the laws. The Plaintiffs asked the courts to rule that both laws violate the Wyoming Constitution. After reviewing evidence and hearing both sides’ arguments, the trial court concluded that the laws violate the Wyoming Constitution and told the State it cannot enforce them. The State appealed that decision to the Wyoming Supreme Court.
Because the Wyoming Supreme Court has the final say on what the Wyoming Constitution means, the Supreme Court did not rely on what the trial court decided. But like the trial court, the Supreme Court focused on a single issue: “Do the Wyoming laws restricting abortions unjustifiably limit a woman’s state constitutional right to make her own health care decisions?”
In 2012, Wyoming voters passed an amendment to the Wyoming Constitution that gave Wyoming adults the right to make their own health care decisions. That amendment, found at Article 1, Section 38 of the Wyoming Constitution, was intended to respond to the Affordable Care Act (a federal law often called Obamacare) and specifically says that: “Each competent adult shall have the right to make his or her own health care decisions.”
The summary issued by the Wyoming Supreme Court Tuesday states that in deciding what that language means in this case, all five Wyoming Supreme Court justices agreed that the decision whether to terminate or continue a pregnancy is a woman’s own health care decision protected by Article 1, Section 38. Relying on law from earlier Wyoming Supreme Court cases, all five justices also concluded that an adult’s right to make his or her own healthcare decisions is a fundamental right because of the very specific language used and because that language was put in a section of the Wyoming Constitution called the “Declaration of Rights.”
Governor Mark Gordon issued a media release in response to the Wyoming Supreme Court’s decision saying that the ruling is profoundly unfortunate and sadly only serves to prolong the ultimate and proper resolution of this issue. This ruling may settle, for now, a legal question, but it does not settle the moral one, nor does it reflect where many Wyoming citizens stand, including himself. The full summary issued by the Wyoming Supreme Court can be found here.
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Last modified: January 7, 2026