Wyoming’s harsh abortion bans have been overturned, including its first-in-the-nation law explicitly prohibiting abortion medication.

While other states’ abortion bans effectively outlaw the use of medication, Wyoming’s 2023 law specifically targeted abortion pills, making it a felony to prescribe, sell, or use “any drug for the purpose of procuring or performing an abortion.”

The state’s general abortion ban prohibited abortion at any stage with limited exceptions for incest, sexual assault, or cases when the pregnant person’s life is in danger, threatening penalties of up to five years in prison and a $20,000 fine

Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens struck both laws down on Monday, marking the third time she has ruled against them in a legal battle that began in 2022. Owens ruled that the laws violated women’s rights by harming their health, well-being and livelihoods, while also violating a 2012 state constitutional amendment that solidified Wyoming residents’ right to make their own health care decisions. The state had attempted to argue that abortion is somehow not health care.

The abortion bans “will undermine the integrity of the medical profession by hamstringing the ability of physicians to provide evidence-based medicine to their patients,” Owes wrote in her decision, via The Associated Press.

Wyoming is the second state to have its near-total abortion ban overturned this month, as Missouri voters approved a constitutional amendment a few weeks ago that enshrined abortion protections in their state constitution, becoming the first state to overturn an abortion ban through a referendum. Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, and New York also approved amendments protecting the right to an abortion.

A lawsuit seeking to challenge the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of abortion medication recently failed when the Supreme Court refused to hear it, allowing the pills to still be distributed by mail to patients without an in-person doctor’s visit.

In her ruling, Owens said that Wyoming state legislators had “enacted laws that impede the fundamental right to make health care decisions for an entire class of people, pregnant women.”

She went on to describe the laws, which restrict abortions at the earliest stages of development, did not distinguish between pre-viable and viable fetuses, imposing “unreasonable and unnecessary” restrictions.

Owens had already blocked the laws from going into effect after they were passed last year while court cases challenging the provisions played out in court. The laws are permanently banned, but the state is expected to appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court.

Jay Jerde, a state special assistant attorney general, told the court last year that Wyoming’s constitutional amendment does not apply to abortions but addresses women’s health in illness. Jerde said the woman is making decisions about her health and the health of the fetus.

But Owens rejected the premise, saying that the “uncontested facts establish that the abortion statutes fail to accomplish any of the asserted interests by the state.

“The state did not present any evidence refuting or challenging the extensive medical testimony presented by the plaintiffs,” she said.

A Wyoming judge has struck down the state’s overall ban on abortion and its first-in-the-country explicit prohibition on the use of medication to end pregnancy – in line with voters in further states voicing support for abortion rights.

The Teton county district judge, Melissa Owens, has ruled three times since 2022 to block the laws while they were disputed in court.

The decision on Monday marks another victory for abortion rights advocates after voters in seven states passed measures in support of access.

One of the Wyoming laws that Owens said violated women’s rights under the state constitution bans abortion except to protect a pregnant woman’s life or in cases involving rape and incest. The other made Wyoming the only state to explicitly ban abortion pills, though other states have instituted de facto bans on the medication by broadly prohibiting abortion.

The laws were challenged by four women, two of whom are obstetricians, as well as two nonprofit organizations. One of the groups, Wellspring Health Access, opened as the state’s first full-service abortion clinic in years in April 2023 after an arson attack in 2022.

“This is a wonderful day for the citizens of Wyoming – and women everywhere, who should have control over their own bodies,” said the Wellspring Health Access president, Julie Burkhart.

Currently, 13 states are enforcing bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions, and four have bans that kick in at or about six weeks into pregnancy – before many women realise they’re pregnant.

Nearly every ban has been challenged with a lawsuit. Courts have blocked the enforcement of some restrictions, including bans throughout pregnancy in Utah and Wyoming. Judges struck down bans in Georgia and North Dakota in September 2024. Georgia’s supreme court ruled the next month that the ban there can be enforced while it considers the case.

In the Wyoming case, the women and nonprofits who challenged the laws argued that the bans stood to harm their health, wellbeing and livelihoods – claims disputed by attorneys for the state. They also argued the bans violated a 2012 state constitutional amendment saying competent Wyoming residents have a right to make their own health care decisions.

As she had done with previous rulings, Owens found merit in both of these arguments. The abortion bans “will undermine the integrity of the medical profession by hamstringing the ability of physicians to provide evidence-based medicine to their patients”, Owens ruled.

The abortion laws impede the fundamental right of women to make health care decisions for an entire class of people – those who are pregnant – in violation of the constitutional amendment, Owens ruled.

Wyoming voters approved the amendment amid fears of government overreach after approval of the federal Affordable Care Act and its initial requirements for people to have health insurance. Attorneys for the state argued that health care, under the amendment, did not include abortion. The Republican governor, Mark Gordon, who signed the abortion laws into effect in 2022 and 2023, did not immediately return an email from the Associated Press on Monday seeking comment.

Both sides wanted Owens to rule on the lawsuit challenging the abortion bans rather than allow it to go to trial in the spring. A three-day bench trial before Owens was previously set, but will not be necessary with this ruling.

The recent US elections saw voters in Missouri clear the way to undo one of the country’s most restrictive abortion bans.

Abortion rights amendments also passed in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland and Montana. Nevada voters approved an amendment in support of abortion rights, but they will need to pass it again in 2026 for it to take effect. Another that bans discrimination on the basis of “pregnancy outcomes” prevailed in New York. Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota, meanwhile, defeated constitutional amendments, leaving bans in place.

The abortion landscape underwent a seismic shift in 2022 when the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade. The 2022 ruling ended a nationwide right to abortion and cleared the way for bans to take effect in most Republican-controlled states.