Patriot Brief
What Happened: The Wyoming Supreme Court struck down two state abortion bans, including the Life is a Human Right Act, in a 4 to 1 decision.
Why It Matters: The ruling blocks laws passed by elected lawmakers and shifts abortion policy power back to the courts under a state constitutional interpretation.
Bottom Line: The decision sets the stage for a constitutional amendment fight and a direct vote of the people in Wyoming.
This is exactly the collision Americans were warned about after Roe fell. Legislators pass laws reflecting the will of their voters, and courts step in to erase them anyway. In Wyoming, one of the reddest states in the country, judges just struck down two pro life laws by declaring abortion a protected health care decision under the state constitution. Supporters of unborn life are calling it judicial activism, while abortion advocates are celebrating. The real question now is who gets the final say, the people or the courts.
Christian Post reports:
In a 4-1 decision released Tuesday in the case of State v. Johnson, the Wyoming Supreme Court struck down the 2023 law known as the Life is a Human Right Act, as well as another law banning abortion drugs in most circumstances.
Chief Justice Lynne J. Boomgaarden authored the majority opinion, upholding a lower court ruling that concluded that the laws violated Article 1, § 38 of the Wyoming Constitution, which guarantees people “the right to make his or her own health care decisions.”
“Although we recognize the State’s interest in protecting the life that an abortion would end, we conclude the State did not meet its burden of justifying the abortion statutes’ restrictions on a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions,” wrote Boomgaarden.
“Certainly, the legislature enacts laws that regulate medical care in the state, but when such a law restricts an individual’s constitutional right to make a health care decision, this Court must interpret the constitution and determine whether the restriction is permissible.”
Wyoming’s governor is now calling for the people to take this decision back into their own hands, and that may be where this fight truly belongs. If courts insist on rewriting the rules, voters are likely to remind them who the Constitution ultimately answers to.
Photo credit: Screenshot: Google Maps