Wyoming

Wyoming abortion views hold steady as lawmakers pursue more restrictions – WyoFile

Published

2 months ago

November 1, 2024

Wyoming abortion views hold steady as lawmakers pursue more restrictions – WyoFile

It’s been nearly a year since a Teton County judge heard final arguments in the case challenging Wyoming’s two abortion bans. Both bans are on hold as the state awaits her decision.

Meantime, sentiments regarding abortion have largely stayed the same in Wyoming, according to a new survey by the University of Wyoming’s School of Politics, Public Affairs, and International Studies in partnership with the Wyoming Survey & Analysis Center.

Comparing this year’s responses to the last four decades of Wyoming election-year surveys, the rate of respondents who want all abortions to be illegal — 10.5% in the latest survey — has remained fairly steady.

More than half of Wyomingites preferred some form of limitation on abortion with 31% opting for exceptions in the case of rape, incest or when a women’s life is in danger, the poll found. Another 19.7% chose an option that said: “The law should permit abortion for reasons other than rape, incest, or danger to the woman’s life, but only after the need for the abortion has been clearly established.”

Those rates have remained about the same for the last two decades, since the survey questions changed.

The rate of those who said all abortions should be allowed as a personal choice — 38.8% this year — has also held steady since around 2004.

The latest results show public sentiment hasn’t changed much, even amid the Wyoming Legislature’s pursuit of new abortion restrictions in the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

(University of Wyoming School of Politics, Public Affairs, and International Studies)

Politics vs opinion

While opinions about abortion have remained largely steady over time, politics in Wyoming have not, hedging more to the right in recent years.

Before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, lawmakers passed a “trigger” law in early 2022 that would’ve banned most abortions if the decades-old Supreme Court precedent was overturned. When Roe fell, the governor certified the ban, but a few days before it was set to go into effect, a group of doctors, women, an advocacy group and a clinic filed a lawsuit. In response, 9th District Court Judge Melissa Owens stalled its enforcement.

Then, in early 2023, lawmakers passed two more bans: another near-total ban to replace the trigger ban, and a first-of-its-kind ban on using medications to induce abortion. While the near-total ban initially didn’t include exceptions for rape or incest, lawmakers added those exemptions.

Ultimately, the bans passed with about 70% of the Legislature’s support. In comparison, the survey found 41.5% of Wyomignites supported either a total ban or one with the exemptions included by lawmakers.

About 58.5% of Wyomingites opted for legalizing all abortions or only requiring a clear need for an abortion to legally proceed.

Political divide

While overall opinions remained stagnant in Wyoming, how Republicans and Democrats responded to the survey has changed, according to an analysis by UW’s School of Politics, Public Affairs, and International Studies.

“In the 2016, 2018, and 2020 waves of the survey, these two disparate groups provided remarkably similar levels of support for abortion access,” the analysis found. “Around 20 percent of both groups contended that abortion should be a matter of personal choice, and no more than about 10 percent of either group suggested that all abortions should be made illegal.”

But there were changes in 2022, the analysis found, showing that more than half of conservatives surveyed said abortion shouldn’t be allowed at all or only allowed in cases of rape, incest, or threat to the mother’s life.

“Conversely, liberals offered far greater support for the most permissive rules around abortions in the entire series, with 70 percent of respondents offering no stipulations to one’s right to an abortion,” the analysis stated.

This year, the gap has widened. About 58% of Republicans surveyed felt all abortions should be illegal or only allowed in instances of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is at risk. The largest group, at 43%, felt there should be those narrow exceptions.

Another 21.5% of Republicans felt all abortions should be legal.

“Wyoming residents exhibit a wide spectrum of views on abortion rights, reflecting deeply nuanced and personal perspectives.”
Ryan Williamson, UW assistant political science professor
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Democrats in the survey were all bunched to one side, though; 86% of Democrats stated that abortion should always be legal, while 11% felt there should be exceptions beyond rape, incest and life of the mother. Fewer than 3% felt they should all be banned or carry limited exceptions.

Independents, meanwhile, also leaned more toward making abortion easier to access. Half of independent survey respondents supported making all abortion legal and another 29% opted for establishing a need for abortion beyond exceptions for only rape, incest or life of the mother.

“Wyoming residents exhibit a wide spectrum of views on abortion rights, reflecting deeply nuanced and personal perspectives,” Ryan Williamson, an assistant political science professor, said in the UW press release.

Methodology

The Survey & Analysis Center and university ran the survey from late September through late October, collecting 739 responses from “randomly selected Wyoming residents,” though gender and age groups from all counties were proportionally represented, according to UW.

This only included noninstitutionalized adults, the survey stated, and involved calling both cell phones and landlines.

The margin of error for survey questions was plus or minus 3.6%.

“The final survey data have been weighted to reflect the actual population distribution in Wyoming on gender, age, county of residence, party affiliation and education,” UW stated.

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Wyoming

Former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney among those to receive Presidential Citizens Medal tonight

Published

6 hours ago

January 2, 2025

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Former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney among those to receive Presidential Citizens Medal tonight

CASPER, Wyo. — Former Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney and 19 other people will receive the second highest civilian medal from President Joe Biden in a ceremony Thursday afternoon.

According to the Associated Press, President Biden is also giving a medal to Bennie Thompson, who alongside Cheney oversaw the congressional investigation into the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

“President Biden believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others,” the White House said in a statement, according to the AP. “The country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice.”

Last year, Biden honored the people who helped defend the Capitol from the mob of angry supporters of Donald Trump, who had refused to accept the presidential election results of 2020 and repeatedly tried to overturn them.

Once a staunch conservative and Trump supporter, Cheney became an outspoken critic of the former and now president elect. She supported his second impeachment, and eventually had a prominent role in the riot investigation. In retaliation, Republicans ousted her from her high-ranking House Republican Conference, and she later lost to Trump-endorsed challenger Harriet Hageman in Wyoming’s 2022 primary elections.

Even after winning the 2024 presidential elections, Trump has refused to walk away from lies about the 2020 election and has specifically spoken out against Cheney and Thompson. In an Interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” he said, “Honestly, they should go to jail.”

According to the AP, other honorees include Frank Butler, who set new standards for using tourniquets on war injuries; Diane Carlson Evans, an Army nurse during the Vietnam War who founded the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation; and Eleanor Smeal, an activist who led women’s rights protests in the 1970s and fought for equal pay.

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Wyoming

‘Local Color: Treasures of Wyoming County’ exhibition opens Friday

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14 hours ago

January 2, 2025

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‘Local Color: Treasures of Wyoming County’ exhibition opens Friday

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Wyoming

Teton County Legislator Wants River Otters Off Wyoming’s Protected List

Published

22 hours ago

January 1, 2025

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Teton County Legislator Wants River Otters Off Wyoming’s Protected List

State Rep. Andrew Byron, R-Jackson, swears he doesn’t hate otters, but his House Bill 45 legislation would remove the aquatic critters as a protected animal in Wyoming.

“I love otters,” Byron said. “I truly love otters.”

Byron said the primary reason for wanting to remove otters from the state’s protected status is to allow for hunting of the species that he believes has fully recovered since becoming nearly extinct in Wyoming about 70 years ago.

An avid fisherman, Byron said he saw many otters while out fishing this summer.

“They seem to be everywhere now,” he said.

Byron said he’s also received multiple complaints from people in Teton and Lincoln counties that otters have been eating up a sizable chunk of the fish populations there.

He wants to remove the otters’ protected status so that Wyoming Game and Fish can have more power to manage the species, but said he has no desire to see it hunted or trapped.

“It just opens up the opportunity to manage them,” he said. “There’s a number of animals we don’t manage, good or bad.”

Similar arguments have been made in Wyoming for delisting the grizzly bear from federal protected status.

Otter Density

Currently, otters, along with the black‑footed ferret, fisher, lynx, pika and wolverine, are all considered protected animals in Wyoming and therefore can’t be hunted.

What Byron’s bill would do is allow Wyoming Game and Fish to manage the otter as regular wildlife, which could open the door for it to be potentially managed for hunting and trapping someday.

State Sens. Barry Crago, R-Buffalo; Dan Dockstader, R-Afton; Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower; Bill Landen, R-Casper; and Reps. Dalton Banks, R-Cowley; Bob Davis, R-Baggs; Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland; Mike Schmid, R-La Barge; and J.D. Williams, R-Lusk; have co-sponsored the legislation.

Otters are not a species protected federally by the Endangered Species Act.

Otter Disbelief

According to Game and Fish, otters have been a protected species in Wyoming since 1953. The northern river otter is the lone species of otter in Wyoming.

Historically, there were northern river otter populations across most major river drainages in the United States, Canada and much of Wyoming, but fur trapping, pollution and habitat degradation decimated the species by the mid 20th century.

University of Wyoming professor Merav Ben-David, one of the state’s perennial otter experts, said the river otter was completely extinct outside Yellowstone National Park by the time it became a protected species in Wyoming in 1953.

Various reintroduction efforts conducted throughout the Rocky Mountain region have been successful, but Ben-David said the otter population in Wyoming is still doing “terribly.”

The main population centers for otters in Wyoming are in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and Greater Green River Basin of southwest Wyoming, although there’s some evidence they’ve started traveling up the Laramie River from Colorado to populate southeast Wyoming.

A 2010 Game and Fish study estimated 35-44 otters live around the Green and New Fork rivers, and designated the animal as “very rare” with “moderate vulnerability.”

UW studies performed in 2015 and 2022 of the otter populations in the Green River found an average of one otter per 2.39-3.65 kilometers. Ben-David said a healthy population would represent three or four times those numbers.

“These are really low numbers compared to other areas,” she said.

Ben-David said the biggest reason why otters have been slow to recover in Wyoming is because their recovery started on lake-based habitats in Yellowstone. Rivers, she said, are a much more suitable location for otters to have success.

“Rivers are better for more fishing capacity,” she said.

Donal O’Toole, a UW professor and veterinary pathologist, said otter introduction programs in Missouri, Colorado and New York have had much more success in growing back otter populations than in Wyoming.

“Why are we different from other states?” he questioned. “Before we start killing things, we might want to make sure killing them makes any ecological sense.”

Game and Fish told Cowboy State Daily in 2023 that the agency does some passive monitoring of otters’ distribution around the state, which includes updating their range and distribution maps based on submitted observations by staff and the public. Though trappers aren’t allowed to kill otters, they’re encouraged to report seeing them to help Game and Fish better ascertain their population and range in Wyoming. That’s according to the agency’s current fur bearing animal hunting or trapping regulations.

What’s Driving it?

O’Toole and Ben-David believe the main push for the legislation is out of frustration among people in southwest Wyoming who stock their own private ponds with fish.

“I think the need for change in law is being driven by a very personal vendetta,” Ben-David said. “It’s a misguided decision to change the law. There’s so many other wildlife things we need to worry about. This is ridiculous.”

During a Game and Fish Commission meeting in March, Alpine resident Tim Haberberger told the panel that people have been illegally killing and trapping otters in southwest Wyoming by the hundreds, disposing of the carcasses in dumpsters.

“This is getting ridiculous, there’s so many being caught and trapped in beaver traps,” he said.

Haberberger said Wyoming is one of the few states where otters can’t be trapped. He wants the activity legalized and managed in Wyoming.

“It needs to (be) discussed,” he said.

But neither Ben-David nor O’Toole believe a desire to trap the otter is a major motivation behind Byron’s bill. Ben-David said the market for river otter fur has substantially declined, bringing in about $90-$150 per pelt in Alaska, where it’s legal.

When factoring in the time and energy to trap an otter, Ben-David said most people don’t find it to be worth their time when they could trap other game and make much more money.

“Trapping in the mountains is way easier and you can make way more money,” Ben-David said. “If in one year you’d get 10 otter pelts, you’d have to wait 50 years to get another 10.”

Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.

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