Wyoming's only full-service clinic stops providing abortions after new regulations signed
CHEYENNE, Wyol (AP) — Wyoming's only full-service abortion clinic stopped providing abortions Friday, but it remained open after Gov. Mark Gordon approved a law requiring that such facilities be licensed as surgical centers.
The clinic will still be staffed and continue to take phone calls from patients while challenging the new law in court, Wellspring Health Access President Julie Burkhart said.
'We want to ensure that we are navigating this process appropriately,' Burkhart said, adding that the clinic was 'not abandoning people.'
The Casper clinic will provide neither surgical nor medication abortions while seeking a court order blocking the new law, Burkhart said.
Wellspring filed a lawsuit Friday to challenge the new law in Natrona County District Court. Gordon spokesman Michael Pearlman, citing policy not to comment on matters involving pending litigation, said Friday the Republican governor would have no comment on the bill signed late Thursday.
The law took effect immediately. It is the latest among a surge of state bans and other restrictions on abortion, lawsuits challenging the measures, and voter initiatives involving abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Many new laws are classified by abortion-access advocates as 'targeted regulation of abortion provider,' or TRAP, laws.
Twenty-four states, including 16 that don't have total abortion bans in place, now have passed TRAP laws similar to the Wyoming measure requiring abortion clinics to be licensed surgical centers, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.
In Wyoming, abortion has remained legal while a previous lawsuit filed by Wellspring and others challenging state abortion bans passed in 2022 and 2023 is pending before the Wyoming Supreme Court.
In November, a Wyoming state district judge who earlier blocked Wyoming's abortion laws from taking effect ruled that those bans — both on surgical abortion and the nation's first explicit ban on abortion pills — violate the state constitution.
Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens cited a state constitutional amendment that says competent adults have a right to make their own health care decisions. Voters approved the amendment in 2012 in response to concerns about their rights under the Affordable Care Act that expanded health insurance coverage nationwide.
Gordon's office appealed the judge's ruling to the state Supreme Court.
Wyoming's newest abortion law requires clinics providing surgical abortions to be licensed as outpatient surgery centers. Meanwhile, surgical abortions may only be provided by licensed physicians with admitting privileges at a hospital no more than 10 miles (16 kilometers) away.
Though located three blocks from one of Wyoming's major hospitals, Wellspring has argued the bill would require costly renovations to its clinic. Wellspring opened in 2023 after almost a year of work to repair serious damage from an arson attack.
All the while, attempts by the Wyoming Legislature to outlaw and regulate abortion have kept coming. They include six bills this year alone.
'As long as abortion remains legal in Wyoming we have a responsibility for the safety of women getting abortions,' Rep. Martha Lawley, a Republican, told a legislative committee in support of the surgical licensing requirement in January.
The measure contained 'basic common-sense regulations,' Lawley said.
But Wellspring's executive director, Katie Knutter, countered that the American Medical Association opposes such regulations and abortion is one of the safest medical procedures.
'We feel that this is specifically targeted to put us out of business and restrict health care services for people with punitive, detrimental measures that increase cost and restrict health care options,' Knutter told the committee.
Gordon vetoed a similar measure in 2024, objecting to added provisions he said could have complicated the state's attempt to uphold Wyoming's abortion bans in court.
A bill that would require women seeking pill abortions to first have an ultrasound awaits Gordon's signature after clearing the Legislature on Thursday.
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