The Wyoming Senate is considering a bill this week that recognizes unborn babies’ right to life and bans abortions.
The Casper Star-Tribune reports state Senate President Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, sent the Life is a Human Right Act (House Bill 152) to the Senate Agriculture Committee on Wednesday for consideration.
Sponsored by state Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody, the bill would protect unborn babies by prohibiting all elective abortions in Wyoming and creating penalties for abortionists who violate the law.
“[A]ll members of the human race are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, the foremost of which is the right to life,” the bill states.
The state House passed the bill by a wide majority earlier this month; the vote was 46-16.
Wyoming already has a law that bans abortions, but a judge blocked it last year. Rodriguez-Williams’s bill would go further than the current ban by protecting all unborn babies, including those conceived in rape and incest. Her bill also clearly states that the ban does not include abortions when the mother’s life is at risk, or miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy care.
“Instead of being health care, abortion is the intentional termination of the life of an unborn baby. It is within the authority of the state of Wyoming to determine reasonable and necessary restrictions upon abortion, including its prohibition,” the bill states, pointing to language in the state constitution.
ACTION ALERT: To support the bill, contact members of the Wyoming Senate.
However, the legislation has received some push-back in the state Senate, including from pro-life lawmakers who expressed concerns about a court deeming it unconstitutional.
Here’s more from the report:
House Bill 152 includes a number of unusual characteristics that some lawmakers, including several who voted in favor of last year’s abortion trigger ban, have argued would infringe on separation-of-powers principles in the U.S. Constitution.
Its “findings and purposes” section, for example, makes interpretations of the Wyoming Constitution, a job that’s reserved for courts. And it would give the sponsor and cosponsors of the bill, by joint resolution, power to intervene in potential court cases challenging the legislation.
“I do think [the courts] don’t like when we write legislation that’s reactive to what’s in court presently, and we’ve traditionally killed every bill that does that,” Driskill said on Friday.
The bill is one of several pro-life measures that state lawmakers are considering this winter. Another would protect mothers and unborn babies by banning abortion drugs.
Wyoming leaders currently are fighting in court to enforce the trigger law, which went into effect only briefly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.
In August, a judge blocked enforcement of the law, agreeing with pro-abortion groups that the abortion ban may cause irreparable harm to pregnant mothers and abortionists.
Wyoming is one of several states that are battling in court to legally protect unborn babies from abortion. Currently, 14 other states are enforcing pro-life laws that ban or strictly limit abortions, and researchers estimate tens of thousands of unborn babies’ lives are being saved.
In June, the Supreme Court overturned Roe in a historic victory for life and returned the power to legislate abortion to the people. Because of Dobbs v. Jackson, states may protect unborn babies from abortion for the first time in nearly 50 years.
All pro-life laws allow abortions when the mother’s life is at risk and, in some states, cases of rape and incest. These make up a very small percent of all abortions in the U.S. Research from the Charlotte Lozier Institute found about 96 percent of abortions are for purely elective reasons.
ACTION ALERT: To support the bill, contact members of the Wyoming Senate.
