Hours After Governor Signs New Abortion Law, Pro-Choice Group Files Lawsuit

Most of the same people whose past legal actions led a Wyoming judge to announce that abortion is a health care right in the state are now suing to stop new ultrasound and surgical licensing laws meant to restrict abortions.

The pro-choice group filed a lawsuit in Natrona County District Court at about 1 a.m. Friday, hours after Gov. Mark Gordon signed a law (House Bill 42) requiring abortion clinics to undergo surgical registration requirements that the state’s only surgical abortion clinic — Casper-based Wellspring Health Access — says will shut it down.

The lawsuit challenges another abortion-restriction bill, House Bill 64, that is headed to Gordon’s desk. It will require women to undergo ultrasounds at least 48 hours before obtaining abortion pills.

House Bill 42 law requires abortion clinics that perform at least one surgical abortion a year to become licensed as ambulatory surgical centers. It also requires doctors performing surgical abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 10 miles of their abortion facilities.

Through their attorneys John Robinson and Marci Crank Bramlet, the plaintiffs suing to block both laws include:

• Wellspring Health Access

• Dr. Giovannina Anthony, OB/GYN

• Dr. Rene Hinkle, OB/GYN

• Danielle Johnson, a birthing-age woman who is also a nurse who can administer sexual assault examinations.

• Just The Pill, which offers telemedicine and abortion pills.

• Chelsea’s Fund, which raises money to help women get abortions.

Abortion Still Legal

All of these plaintiffs except Just The Pill were involved in two past lawsuits against Wyoming abortion bans, the most recent of which led Teton County District Court Judge Melissa Owens to rule that abortion is a health care right under the state Constitution.

That ruling is now pending review in the Wyoming Supreme Court, with the state calling it a misapplication of legal principles.

Another woman, Kathleen Dow, was involved in the past lawsuits but is not listed as a plaintiff in the recent one.

Like its ancestors, the early Friday morning lawsuit cites a 2012 Wyoming Constitutional amendment the voters overwhelmingly passed, the “Right of Health Care Access,” which promises each competent adult the right to make his or her own health care decisions.

During its passage, the amendment was marketed as a check on a federal insurance reform known as “Obamacare.” But through Owens’ temporary and permanent injunctions, it has kept abortion legal in Wyoming since the U.S. Supreme Court removed the federal right to the procedure in June 2022.

‘Onerous And Costly’

The Friday morning complaint says the ultrasound requirement will “likely” mandate transvaginal ultrasounds, which involve moving an ultrasound device against a woman’s cervix.

It will burden women with “a daunting hurdle to their constitutional rights,” and will require them to undergo “an unnecessary, costly and invasive procedure to access the health care of their choice,” the complaint alleges.

Wellspring will have to shut its facility down, while Just The Pill won’t be able to offer full telehealth abortion services, the document says.  

The laws will also hurt Chelsea’s Fund by giving it the added burden of supporting travel costs, the complaint says.

The complaint says the laws will hurt Johnson by posing a hurdle to future abortions if she needs them, or causing unnecessary delay if her life is in danger. She’s a mother of two children and a charge nurse, who may be constrained under the new laws from providing her pregnant patients with “all available evidence-based health care which she is obligated to provide,” says the document.

Hinkle and Anthony will have to delay “appropriate and necessary medical care” for pregnant women under the new laws, the complaint says.

The Ask

The complaint asks the Natrona County District Court to declare that the new laws violate people’s rights, to block the laws temporarily and permanently, to award the plaintiffs’ costs and expenses, and to retain jurisdiction to make public officials comply with those rulings.

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.