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When a woman in Wyoming recently called the only abortion clinic of the state to make an appointment to end her pregnancy, she received news that made her life even more difficult.
Wellspring Health Access stopped providing abortions on the same day, responding to a number of new requirements for the Casper Clinic to become a licensed surgical center.
“It was a kind of bad timing on my part,” says the woman, who is mentioned in her community because of the stigma of abortion.
Although abortion remains legal in Wyoming, it has become increasingly difficult due to new requirements for abortion clinics and women seeking abortions. In this case, the woman had to go to Colorado, which is partly bordering south of Wyoming.
The Supreme Court in Wyoming will hear arguments on Wednesday about the ban on the abortion of the state that suspended a judge in the lower court and suspended as unconstitutional. But even if the Supreme Court in the state agrees with these decisions, access to abortion in Wyoming will remain uncertain.
New state laws make the acquisition of abortions much more difficult
One new law is aimed at Wellspring Health Access as Wyoming’s only abortion clinic, which requires license as an outpatient -surgical center at a cost of up to $ 500,000, according to the clinic.
The law also requires that the doctors of the clinic be admitted to a hospital within ten kilometers (16 kilometers). However, a hospital three blocks from the clinic are not obliged to admit his doctors.
“It’s a ban on abortion without banning abortion,” says Julie Burkhart, founder and president of Wellspring Health Access.
A second new law requires women to get ultrasound at least 48 hours before a medication abortion, which costs them $ 250 or more plus gas money and travel time in a condition where ultrasound is not available in many rural areas.
The Wyoming Legislature is well among its rights to regulate abortion to protect women from even the small chance of an abortion accident, a state lawyer, John Lykovsky, argued during a recent court hearing on the new laws.
Unspeted abortion laws have far -reaching consequences
In most cases, a transvaginal ultrasound is needed to obtain a fetal image in the earliest stages of pregnancy, when most abortions are done. The intrusion, especially for rape and abuse victims, Governor Mark Gordon, a Republican, caused the ultrasound bill to sign a few days after signing the surgical center requirement on February 27.
The Republican-dominated legislature exceeded its veto, which led Wellspring Health Access, the Wyoming Abority Access Advocate Chelsea’s Fund and others to sue it and licensing legislation.
Meanwhile, the legal uncertainty caused Wellspring Health Access, which was opened in 2023 after an arson delayed the original date by almost a year to stop medication and surgical abortions.
Several dozen abortion opponents attended a Tuesday trial in Casper over the suspension of the laws as the lawsuit continues. If this happens, the clinic’s abortions will resume to the dismay of opponents, says Ross Schriftman, president of the local Wyoming Right to Life chapter.
“No inspections, no confirmation or the people who make the abortions are licensed doctors for Wyoming and no continuity of care to the hospital,” Schriftman said by e -mail.
Proponents of abortion claim support among women in Wyoming
A former Wyoming resident who received an abortion in neighboring Colorado in 2017 had her closest option at the time sympathy with the rural Wyoming women now looking for abortions.
“God forbids it is winter,” says Ciel Newman, who now lives in New Mexico. “Wyoming is a large, rural condition without much interstate coverage.”
The amount of business at Wellspring Health Access shows that the lawmakers who adopted the abortion law are out of line with their voters, Burkhart said.
Burkhart said: “Every week we have let people come into our doors that we were open.” If people coming out of republican states, or more traditional-learning states, did not approve of abortion, we would no longer do business because people just wouldn’t show up. “
Is access to abortion a wyoming health care, isn’t it?
In the case that will be argued before the Supreme Court in the state, the same groups and women are suing for laws that prohibit abortion that Wyoming has passed since 2022. This includes the first explicit ban on medication abortion in the US
In November, a Jackson judge ruled that the ban violated a constitutional amendment of 2012 who guarantees the right of competent adults to make their own healthcare decisions.
Even if the judges agree, Wellspring Health Access will suffer. Before the new laws, the clinic saw as many as 22 patients a day, of which 70% were there for abortions: half surgical, half through pills.
According to the clinic, Wellspring Health Access is not abortions and sees about five patients a day, all of which are transgender people who receive hormone replacement therapy.
Twenty -three other states, including 14 that did not completely prohibit the abortion, accepted the requirements to Wyoming to Wyoming, which opponents ‘targeted regulation of abortion providers’ call, or the laws of stairs. Licensing of surgical centers and hospital recognizing privileges are typical requirements, according to the GuttMacher Institute, a research group that advocates access to abortion.
Few states have accepted fall laws since the US Supreme Court Roe v. Wade overturned in 2022, but abortion remains a troubled matter in several. A Missouri licensing law was to limit abortions until it was blocked by a judge, Kimya Forouzan, state policy adviser at the GuttMacher Institute, pointed out.
“It still has a great influence on the ability to take care,” Forouzan said in ‘Ne -mail.
An even longer ride to undergo an abortion
The Wyoming woman who recently sought a surgical abortion at Wellspring Health Access had to drive more than twice as far from her hometown, more than four hours each road, to do the procedure at the Planned Parenthood in Fort Collins, Colorado.
“Although I fully support abortion, it’s not something I thought I would personally do it,” the woman said, adding that Wellspring Health Access had covered her costs.
“It was a humble experience,” she said. “It just gave me a lot more compassion for people who experienced abortions, as well as people who can’t follow the route.”
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