One Senate vote nixed putting pro-life amendment on Wyoming ballot

Wyoming residents will not be able to vote on a constitutional amendment on abortion after the effort failed in the Senate by one vote.

Key Takeaways:

• In January, the Wyoming Supreme Court struck down the state's law protecting virtually all preborn children from abortion.

• A resolution was being considered by the Senate that would have given the legislature the ability to impose restrictions on "health care" — meaning abortion. This language was based on a state Supreme Court ruling that classified abortion under the banner of "health care."

• The pro-life effort failed by one vote.

The Backstory:

In 2023, laws protecting preborn children from abortion and banning abortion pills in Wyoming were both passed, and immediately became ensnared in legal battles, keeping them from taking effect. One  judge blocked the law protecting preborn children from abortion within days, with another quickly placing an injunction against the abortion pill ban.

The legal wrangling came to an end in January of this year, however, when the Wyoming Supreme Court blocked both laws. The court claimed the laws were unconstitutional, because they violate a woman's right to make her own "health care choices," though induced abortion is not health care, and is not medically necessary.

“Although a woman’s decision to have an abortion ends the fetal life, the decision is, nevertheless, one she makes concerning her own health care,” Wyoming Chief Justice Lynne Boomgaarden wrote (emphasis added).

Classifying the intentional and direct ending of a human life as "health care" is not scientific; it is ideological.

The Details:

Senate Joint Resolution 7 would have appeared on the November ballot for voters in Wyoming; if approved, it would have amended the Wyoming constitution to allow legislators to define health care, solely "for purposes of the right of health care access and to clarify when and how the legislature may impose restrictions on the right of health care access."

This is in direct response to the Wyoming Supreme Court decision, which wrongly ruled that abortion is a form of health care.

Governor Mark Gordon responded to the decision by urging the legislature to take action and put the matter to voters to decide. “The question of abortion deserves careful deliberation,” Gordon said. “I urge the Legislature to take up this issue earnestly and put forward a genuine solution to the voters of Wyoming that provides a clear, irrefutable, durable and morally sound resolution to this fraught issue.”

However, the Senate is currently in a budget session, and the resolution did not meet the required threshold to be introduced as a non-budget related bill. Twenty state senators voted in favor of its introduction, and 11 against, meaning it failed by just one vote.

At least one Republican, who claims to be pro-life, voted against it because she said the language was too vague.  

“I believe in life and I believe in the right of the unborn child,” said Sen. Evie Brennan, admitting that the resolution aims to protect preborn children. Yet she added, “The problem is, it opened up all of health care to be defined by the legislature. The unintended consequences could be catastrophic in years to come.”

Sen. Cale Case, who is also a Republican, agreed. "It's crazy to give us that much power," Case said, arguing that legislators should instead have written a resolution specifically naming abortion. "Who wants to turn health care over to the Legislature? It can be a bit of a clown show, you have to admit."

Unfortunately the state's judiciary has decided that women now have the right to intentionally kill certain human beings (or in the court's words, to end fetal lives) under the guise of "health care" — which is far more serious and deadly than a clown show.

The Bottom Line:

It is not clear what the future of abortion in Wyoming will be, but for now, preborn children remain at risk within the state, and will be for the foreseeable future.