District Judge Thomas Campbell issued the ruling in a lawsuit filed by Wellspring Health Access and others to challenge the laws. One law requires clinics providing surgical abortions to be licensed as outpatient surgical centers and the other requires women to get an ultrasound before a medication abortion.
Wellspring Health Access stopped providing abortions Feb. 28, the day after Republican Gov. Mark Gordon signed the licensing requirement into law. The clinic has continued to provide hormone replacement therapy for transgender patients.
Gordon vetoed the requirement for an ultrasound at least 48 hours before a pill abortion, calling it onerous in cases of abuse, rape, or when a woman’s health is at risk. State lawmakers voted to override the veto March 5.
Opponents call laws like Wyoming’s requirements “targeted restrictions on abortion providers” because they can regulate clinics and abortion access out of existence even if abortion remains legal.
Abortion has remained legal in Wyoming while the same groups and women challenge state abortion bans passed since 2022 that include the first explicit ban on abortion pills in the U.S. Arguments before the state Supreme Court in that case were made April 16 in Cheyenne.
