Wyoming lawmaker appalled as judge overturns pro-life law: ‘We give more respect to livestock’

UPDATE, 11/20/2024: Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon has said that Monday’s ruling to strike down the state’s pro-life law is “frustrating” and that the state will appeal the decision.

“I have directed the Attorney General to review the opinion and prepare an appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court,” wrote Gordon in a statement on Tuesday. He added, “I remain committed to defending the constitutionality of this law and the sanctity of life.”

11/20/2024: A Wyoming judge on Monday overturned two laws protecting preborn children in the state on the basis that they are “unconstitutional.” The ruling means that abortion is legal in the state up until the point of “fetal viability,” a subjective standard which is not solely based on gestational age.

With the ruling, Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens placed an injunction on the Life Act and restrictions on the abortion pill, saying the state “has enacted laws that impede the fundamental right to make health care decisions for an entire class of people, pregnant women.” The measures had largely outlawed abortion in the state, including by use of the abortion pill. Both laws were challenged in a lawsuit by the abortion industry; Monday’s ruling marks the third time Owens has blocked the state’s laws put in place to protect the lives of preborn human beings from homicide by abortion.

“The Court concludes that the Abortion Statutes suspend a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions during the entire term of a pregnancy and are not reasonable or necessary to protect the health and general welfare of the people,” Owens wrote.

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Majority Floor Leader Rep. Chip Neiman said he was “saddened and appalled” at the ruling, noting that livestock in the state are granted more protections than preborn human beings. Cowboy State Daily reported:

“We go out of our way to protect and mount the forces and come to Wyoming and tell us how to protect a wolf — and we’ll scatter the ashes of a grizzly bear over the valley in respect and deep remorse over the loss of this animal,” said Neiman, referencing Wyoming residents’ and outsiders’ grief over a slain wolf and famous grizzly bear that died in the past year. “And yet we don’t have a problem with a judge that looks at innocent human life and says, ‘Nope, no rights here?’

… [T]o take a human baby and look at it and say it’s not valuable — we give more respect to livestock than we do to human beings. How is that OK?”

Neiman added that the “viability” cutoff for abortion makes no sense, noting rightly that many elderly are often not independently viable at the end of their lives. “It just sickens me,” he said. He also confirmed that lawmakers hope to reintroduce a bill requiring ultrasounds before abortion, which was previously vetoed by Governor Mark Gordon.

“We can’t quit. Human life is too valuable to just say, ‘Well that’s enough then, we lost,’” said Neiman. “I’m not giving up, and I’m sure I’m not alone.”

Gordon announced Tuesday that the state will appeal the ruling.

“Judge Owen’s (sic) ruling is frustrating, still this is just one of the steps in the judicial process,” he wrote in a statement to Cowboy State Daily. “Regardless of her decision, it was clear there would be an appeal. I remain committed to defending the constitutionality of this law and the sanctity of life.”

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