Skip to content

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/

Menu

  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships
    • From the Collection

      Changing Child Care

      Illustration of a woman feeding a baby a bottle
      • As climate change worsens hurricane season in Louisiana, doulas are ensuring parents can safely feed their babies

        Jessica Kutz · May 5
      • Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito argued abortion isn’t an economic issue. But is that true?

        Chabeli Carrazana · May 4
      • Pregnant people are at 'greater risk' in states hit hard by wildfire smoke, air pollution, new report shows

        Jessica Kutz · April 20
    • From the Collection

      Next-Gen GOP

      Illustration of a woman riding an elephant
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • A banner year for Republican women

        Amanda Becker · November 11
      • Republican women could double representation in the U.S. House

        Amanda Becker · November 4
    • From the Collection

      On The Rise

      Illustration of three women marching
      • Biden’s new environmental justice office aims to tackle the health impacts disproportionately faced by people of color

        Jessica Kutz · June 2
      • Jessica Cisneros takes on the last anti-abortion U.S. House Democrat

        Amanda Becker · February 25
      • Meet J. Michelle Childs, South Carolina judge and possible Supreme Court contender

        Candice Norwood · February 18
    • From the Collection

      Pandemic Within a Pandemic

      Illustration of four people marching for Black Lives Matter with coronavirus as the backdrop
      • Some LGBTQ+ people worry that the COVID-19 vaccine will affect HIV medication. It won’t.

        Orion Rummler · November 23
      • Why are more men dying from COVID? It’s a complicated story of nature vs. nurture, researchers say

        Mariel Padilla · September 22
      • Few incarcerated women were released during COVID. The ones who remain have struggled.

        Candice Norwood · August 17
    • From the Collection

      Portraits of a Pandemic

      Illustration of a woman wearing a mask and holding up the coronavirus
      • For family caregivers, COVID is a mental health crisis in the making

        Shefali Luthra · October 8
      • A new database tracks COVID-19’s effects on sex and gender

        Shefali Luthra · September 15
      • Pregnant in a pandemic: The 'perfect storm for a crisis'

        Shefali Luthra · August 25
    • From the Collection

      The 19th Explains

      People walking from many articles to one article where they can get the context they need on an issue.
      • The 19th Explains: How pregnant people can prepare for a summer of heat waves

        Jessica Kutz · June 17
      • The 19th Explains: How new Title IX guidelines on sexual misconduct may give more help to survivors

        Nadra Nittle · June 14
      • The 19th Explains: How would overturning Roe v. Wade affect IVF?

        Jennifer Gerson · May 27
    • From the Collection

      The Electability Myth

      Illustration of three women speaking at podiums
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • Stepping in after tragedy: How political wives became widow lawmakers

        Mariel Padilla · May 24
      • Do term limits help women candidates? New York could be a new testing ground

        Barbara Rodriguez · January 11
    • From the Collection

      The Impact of Aging

      A number of older people walking down a path of information.
      • 'I'm planning on working until the day I die': Older women voters are worried about the future

        Mariel Padilla · June 3
      • Climate change is forcing care workers to act as first responders

        Jessica Kutz · May 31
      • Woman alleges that an assisted living facility denied her admission because she is transgender

        Sara Luterman · November 8
    • From the Collection

      Voting Rights

      A series of hands reaching for ballots.
      • Florida’s redistricting fight continues. The head of the state League of Women Voters talks about what’s at stake.

        Barbara Rodriguez · April 19
      • Women have been sounding the alarm ahead of Texas’ first-in-the-nation primary

        Barbara Rodriguez · February 28
      • LGBTQ+ people of color are at risk from rising voter restrictions as federal protections falter in the Senate, advocates say

        Orion Rummler · January 19

    View all collections

  • Explore by Topic

    • Abortion
    • Business & Economy
    • Caregiving
    • Coronavirus
    • Education
    • Election 2020
    • Elections 2022
    • Environment & Climate
    • Health
    • Immigration
    • Inside The 19th
    • Justice
    • LGBTQ+
    • Politics
    • Race
    • Sports
    • Technology

    View All Topics

Home
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

The 19th News(letter)

News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday.

You have been subscribed!

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

Donate to get our member newsletter

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

Wyoming State Capitol Building.
Wyoming State Capitol Building in Cheyenne, Wyoming. (Getty Images)

Health

Wyoming’s flood of anti-abortion bills reveal what’s happening across the country, experts say

Wyoming has filed eight anti-abortion bills this session, a record number in recent history for the state legislature.

Alexa Mikhail

Fellow

Published

2021-03-19 06:00
6:00
March 19, 2021
am

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Wyoming has filed eight anti-abortion bills this session, a record number in recent history for the state legislature. Experts cite changes in statehouse leadership as well as the conservative makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court for the surge in anti-abortion bills filed in the Wyoming statehouse.

Between 2011 and 2020, there were 21 restrictions and two abortion bans introduced in the state. Wyoming has only passed two abortion-related bills in the past 30 years. 

Hearings in the state House were held Wednesday for four of the bills, and three others are awaiting hearings in the coming weeks. Some of the proposed restrictions include a mandated counseling session prior to having an abortion, a ban on abortion six weeks after pregnancy, and the elimination of funds for student’s health insurance to cover the procedure. Others would ban medications used for abortions and allow doctors the ability to question a patient’s reasoning for seeking out the procedure. 

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

There has only been one other year in the past decade, 2017, with this type of legislative action in the first few months of a year in Wyoming toward abortion restriction bills, said Elizabeth Nash, a policy analyst at the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization focused on reproductive health. Two of the 10 bills have never been filed in a previous session.

The only anti-abortion legislation Wyoming has passed in the last two decades was in 2017, requiring physicians to offer patients an ultrasound and the chance to listen to a heartbeat if there is one. The latest direct restrictions in effect today were filed before 1990. The three restrictions — filed between 1970 and 1990 — ultimately led to laws related to parental consent, limiting public funding and abortion approval in later stages only in cases of “life endangerment or severely compromised health,” according to the Guttmacher Institute. 

Many in Wyoming already travel out of state to receive abortions due to limited access, the Guttmacher Institute noted. In 2017, 140 abortions were provided in Wyoming, while 330 abortions were provided to Wyoming residents who traveled to Colorado. Wyoming, the least populous state, has only two abortion clinics, and the average driving distance to reach them is 135 miles, according to the Guttmacher Institute. 

Wyoming legislators did not have the bandwidth or the interest to tackle abortion heavily until this year, said Sharon Breitweiser, the executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wyoming. 

“They would not make these bills a big priority,” Breitweiser said. “I think what has shifted is that the more extreme-right elements in the Republican Party seem to be holding sway.” 

The Wyoming legislature has historically been one of the most Republican in the country. Abortion issues, however, never seemed to be a top priority. After the 2020 elections, the Republicans who used to vote against abortion restriction bills — most of them women —  no longer held key leadership positions, Breitweiser said, adding that she believes the culture has shifted in such a way that the Wyoming legislature votes along party lines when it comes to bills related to abortion. Additionally, more moderate-leaning candidates were targeted in primaries with a push toward further-right candidates, Breitweiser said. This also comes as Wyoming elected openly anti-abortion Gov. Mark Gordon in 2019. 

“We used to have people with a bit of a more libertarian bend … not what you’re seeing now with some people where that’s being used as kind of a cover for the more extreme points of view,” Breitweiser said. “We’ve had folks that really thought the government didn’t have a lot of business in people’s lives. … We also had people in leadership [saying], ‘We’ve just got a lot of other important issues we need to be spending our very short amount of time on.’”  

For others, the bills do take precedence. 

“Wyoming is a pro-life state, and that should extend to our state institutions,” said Marti Halverson, president of Right to Life Wyoming, who testified Wednesday in favor of the bill that limits funds for student’s health insurance to cover abortions, according to NBC affiliate KPVI-DT. 

What is happening in Wyoming is emblematic of a national shift. Many state legislatures are seeing a wave of anti-abortion restriction bills and abortion bans being introduced. 

“It says something when we’re seeing this in Wyoming, a place where we hadn’t seen this kind of attention on abortion,” Nash said. “It’s much more the kind of action you would see in Arkansas [or] Louisiana.” 

Just this year, 384 anti-abortion laws have been introduced across 43 states. 

In the first two months of this year, eight abortion restriction bills were enacted in the United States. Arkansas passed two restrictions, one requiring those seeking an abortion to call a hotline for specific pregnancy information and giving the state the ability to record that call for the patient’s medical record. South Carolina enacted a ban that would effectively prohibit abortions as early as six weeks of pregnancy, though the bill is now temporarily blocked in court. Ohio banned using telemedicine for medication abortion. Kentucky passed a law that would give the authority to the state’s attorney general to close abortion clinics. Along with South Dakota, Kentucky also enacted laws that would “penalize physicians for not taking medically unnecessary actions for a fetus.” If approved by voters in 2022, a bill in Kansas would change the state’s constitution to eliminate the right to have an abortion. 

In 2017, five anti-abortion bills were enacted by the end of February, according to the Guttmacher Institute. 

With the new makeup in the Supreme Court — including the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett that sealed a 6-3 conservative majority — an increasing number of states have taken up abortion restriction bills. Many of these restrictions directly violate Roe v. Wade, but legislators are motivated by the chance to elevate their bills to the federal level, Nash said, with hopes of waiting “for a different legal environment” that could reverse Roe altogether.   

“Because before 2016, we didn’t see these kinds of abortion bans really get considered in state legislatures. They were much more on the fringe and much more on the afterthought,” Nash said. 

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

The 19th News(letter)

News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday.

You have been subscribed!

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

Donate to get our member newsletter

Up Next

Xavier Becerra speaking to a Senate committee.

Health

Xavier Becerra confirmed as nation’s first Latinx health secretary

Becerra, most recently California's attorney general, won support from reproductive rights groups and organizers for transgender equality. 

Read the Story

The 19th
The 19th is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Our stories are free to republish in accordance with these guidelines.

  • Donate
  • Subscribe to the Newsletter
  • Attend an Event
  • Jobs
  • Fellowships
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Community Guidelines
  • Membership
  • Membership FAQ
  • Major Gifts
  • Sponsorship
  • Privacy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram