A Wyoming judge has blocked a new state law that bans abortions beyond the earliest stages of pregnancy while a lawsuit challenging the provision moves ahead.
It’s the first court ruling affecting the legal status of abortion in Wyoming since the state Supreme Court struck down sweeping abortion and abortion pill bans in January, finding that the laws violated the state constitution.
The new law, which would ban abortion after embryonic cardiac activity can be detected, is likely to be overturned on similar grounds, Natrona County District Judge Dan Forgey wrote in granting a temporary restraining order against it Friday.
Wyoming’s lone abortion clinic, Wellspring Health Access, and others challenging the new law welcomed the latest ruling after they successfully got the blanket abortion bans overturned.
“For nearly two months, this deeply harmful abortion ban has greatly reduced our ability to provide care to people in Wyoming,” Wellspring Health Access President Julie Burkhart said in a statement.
