Wyoming House Committee Passes Bill to Ban Abortions When Roe v. Wade is Overturned

State   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Feb 23, 2022   |   5:05PM   |   Cheyenne, Wyoming

Wyoming House lawmakers advanced pro-life legislation Wednesday that would protect unborn babies by banning abortions as soon as the U.S. Supreme Court allows states to do so.

Casper Star Tribune reports a state House committee voted to move the pro-life “trigger bill” to the full House for a vote.

State House Bill 92, sponsored by Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody, would ban abortions as soon as the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Exceptions would be allowed if the mother’s life is at risk.

“A trigger bill is an abortion ban in waiting,” Rodriguez-Williams told lawmakers last week, according to the news outlet. “The vast majority of Wyomingites support life from conception to natural death.”

The legislation would save nearly 100 unborn babies every year. The state reported 91 abortions in 2020, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute.

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Currently, because of Roe, states are forced to legalize abortions up to viability. However, the Supreme Court is considering a Mississippi case that challenges that precedent, and a ruling is expected this summer.

Wyoming would join 12 other states with trigger laws that immediately would ban abortions once Roe is overturned, according to the report.

Two other pro-life bills also passed state House and Senate committees Wednesday, including House Bill 149 to ban chemical abortion drugs and Senate File 83 to protect unborn babies from discriminatory abortions based on their sex, race or disability, the Star Tribune reports.

Across the country, state lawmakers are introducing hundreds of pro-life bills to protect unborn babies from abortion in the hopes that the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade this year. Florida appears poised to pass a 15-week abortion ban that would save thousands of unborn babies from abortion every year. West Virginia and Arizona also advanced similar bills to protect unborn babies this month.

Pro-life advocates also are working to expand support services for pregnant and parenting moms in anticipation that Roe may be overturned as soon as June.

Researchers estimated that abortion numbers would drop by about 120,000 in the first year and potentially even more in subsequent years if the high court allows states to ban abortions again.

Since Roe in 1973, more than 63.5 million unborn babies have been killed in abortions.