Abortion in Wyoming

Abortion in Wyoming is legal. In a 2014 survey by the Pew Research Center, 48% of Wyoming adults asked said that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Abortion was a criminal offence in Wyoming in 1950. Less-restrictive abortion legislation was introduced in 1997 but not passed. In 2013, a fetal heartbeat bill was introduced in the Wyoming House of Representatives but never made it out of committee. In January 2017, a mandatory ultrasound law went into effect, however it lacks an enforcement mechanism.

The number of abortion clinics in the state has been on the decline since the late 20th century, going from eight in 1982 to five in 1992 to one in 2014, and remaining at that total in 2016, 2017 and 2019.  At the same time, a few medical facilities in the state have quietly offered abortion services to women. In 2017, 140 abortions took place in the state, representing 0.00016% of all such procedures in the US that year.^[1] Some Wyomingites participated in Stop the Bans (#StoptheBans) rallies in May 2019 to advocate for women's right to abortion service health care.

Terminology[]

The abortion debate most commonly relates to the "induced abortion" of an embryo or fetus at some point in a pregnancy, which is also how the term is used in a legal sense.^{[note 1]} Some also use the term "elective abortion", which is used in relation to a claim to an unrestricted right of a woman to an abortion, whether or not she chooses to have one. The term elective abortion or voluntary abortion describes the interruption of pregnancy before viability at the request of the woman, but not for medical reasons.^[2]

Anti-abortion advocates tend to use terms such as "unborn baby", "unborn child", or "pre-born child",^[3][4] and see the medical terms "embryo", "zygote", and "fetus" as dehumanizing.^[5][6] Both "pro-choice" and "pro-life" are examples of terms labeled as political framing: they are terms which purposely try to define their philosophies in the best possible light, while by definition attempting to describe their opposition in the worst possible light. "Pro-choice" implies that the alternative viewpoint is "anti-choice", while "pro-life" implies the alternative viewpoint is "pro-death" or "anti-life".^[7] The Associated Press encourages journalists to use the terms "abortion rights" and "anti-abortion".^[8]

Context[]

Free birth control correlates to teenage girls having a fewer pregnancies and fewer abortions. A 2014 New England Journal of Medicine study found such a link.  At the same time, a 2011 study by Center for Reproductive Rights and also found that states with more abortion restrictions have higher rates of maternal death, higher rates of uninsured pregnant women, higher rates of infant and child deaths, higher rates of teen drug and alcohol abuse, and lower rates of cancer screening.^[9]

According to a 2017 report from the Center for Reproductive Rights and Ibis Reproductive Health, states that tried to pass additional constraints on a women's ability to access legal abortions had fewer policies supporting women's health, maternal health and children's health.  These states also tended to resist expanding Medicaid, family leave, medical leave, and sex education in public schools.^[10] According to Megan Donovan, a senior policy manager at the Guttmacher Institute, states have legislation seeking to protect a woman's right to access abortion services have the lowest rates of infant mortality in the United States.^[10]

Poor women in the United States had problems paying for menstrual pads and tampons in 2018 and 2019. Almost two-thirds of American women could not afford them while they were not available through the federal Women, Infants, and Children Program (WIC).^[11] Lack of menstrual supplies has an economic impact on poor women.  A study in St. Louis found that 36% had to miss days of work because they lacked adequate menstrual hygiene supplies during their period.  This was on top of the fact that many had other menstrual issues including bleeding, cramps and other menstrual induced health issues.^[11] This state was one of a majority that taxed essential hygiene products like tampons and menstrual pads as of November 2018.^{[12][13][14][15]}

History[]

In 2017, there were medical facilities that would perform abortions but they did not make this information public and women could only find out about these services if they were existing patients.^[16]

Legislative history[]

In 1950, the state legislature passed a law that stating that a woman who had an abortion or actively sought to have an abortion regardless of whether she went through with it were guilty of a criminal offense.^[17] It is not clear how often the law was enforced. A bill protecting women's access to abortion was introduced in 1997, but did not succeed in getting a floor vote.^[18]

A fetal heartbeat bill, HB 97, was introduced in the Wyoming House of Representatives in January 2013 by Kendell Kroeker; however, in February 2013 the bill was struck down by a house committee in a 4–5 vote.^[19][20] The state legislature was one of five states nationwide that tried to pass such a bill that year.^[21] On July 1, 2017, a law passed by the state legislature went into effect the prohibited the sale of fetal tissue.  Another law that went into effect that day required abortion service providers to give women seeking abortions an ultrasound, but it had no enforcement component.^[16] As of May 14, 2019, the state prohibited abortions after the fetus was viable, generally some point between week 24 and 28. This period uses a standard defined by the US Supreme Court in 1973 with the Roe v. Wade ruling.^[22]

Judicial history[]

The US Supreme Court's decision in 1973's Roe v. Wade ruling meant the state could no longer regulate abortion in the first trimester.^[17]

Clinic history[]

Number of abortion clinics in Wyoming by year

Between 1982 and 1992, the total number of abortion clinics in the state declined by three, going from eight to five.^[18] In 1990, family practice Emerg-A-Care opened in Jackson as urgent care so that tourists in the area would feel comfortable visiting if they needed medical treatment. Among the services they offered were abortion services.^[16]

In 2014, there officially was one abortion clinic in the state;^[23] 96% of counties in the state did not have an abortion clinic, and 96% of women in the state aged 15–44 lived in a county without an abortion clinic.^[24] In March 2016, there was only one Planned Parenthood clinic in the state.^[25] After Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains switched from directly billing women to directly billing Medicaid in 2016, they ran into funding bills as Medicaid has low reimbursement rates. Consequently, they were forced to close three clinics in Colorado and Wyoming in July 2017.  The closure of the Wyoming clinic meant the state had no more Planned Parenthood clinics in the state, making Wyoming one of two states without a Planned Parenthood clinic.^[26] North Dakota, Wyoming, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia were the only six states as of July 21, 2017, not to have a Planned Parenthood clinic that offered abortion services.^[27] In 2017, there was still only one abortion clinic in Wyoming, but there were claims of two other providers in Jackson Hole that privately would perform abortions for existing patients. These health centers provided around one to five abortions a year.^[16] Emerg-A-Care also served women from eastern Idaho. Less than 0.5% of their practice involved providing abortion services. Of the abortions performed in 2017, 80% were medical.^[16]

In 2020, Emerg-A-Care was sold to St. John's Health.^[28]

Historical Statistics[]

In the period between 1972 and 1974, there were zero reported illegal abortion deaths in the state.^[29] In 1990, 50,000 women were at risk of unintended pregnancies.^[18] In 2014, 48% of adults said in a poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.^[30] In 2017, the state had an infant mortality rate of 4.6 deaths per 1,000 live births. High infant mortality and lack of access to reproductive health care are closely correlated in Wyoming, as in many other states.^[10]

Financing[]

In 1998, women could only get public funds for an abortion if continuing the pregnancy put her life at risk, if the pregnancy was a result of rape that was reported within five days of it occurring or was a result of incest.^[18] In 2010, the state had zero publicly funded abortions.^[34]

Abortion Rights and Anti-abortion views and activities[]

Dissent Against Restrictive Laws[]

Women from the state participated in rallies supporting abortion rights as part of the Stop the Bans (#StoptheBans) effort in May 2019. Wyoming Equality was one of the organizers for the Cheyenne #StoptheBans protest that drew women from across the state. Participant Ambrei Meadows-Fernandez said during the protest that the rallies were designed to foster awareness among supporters of women's health freedom in the state, saying, "We know in a day where you can reach anyone via social media almost instantly, it kind of shows your commitment to the long-run of connection."^[35]

Anti-Abortion Violence[]

In 1994, a domestic terrorist responsible for attacks in multiple states bombed the Emerg-A-Care health center in Jackson during the night, causing large amounts of smoke damage that resulted in the clinic being closed for several weeks.^[16]

Footnotes[]

References[]