Wyoming
Wyoming’s abortion fight returns to Teton County courtroom — and judge that overturned bans – WyoFile
Wyoming abortion providers refiled their challenge to the state’s newly enacted clinic and ultrasound regulations on Tuesday in Teton County after a Natrona County court failed to act on a request to hold an emergency hearing on whether to temporarily block the laws.
Court records obtained by WyoFile show the change landed the case in the courtroom of Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens, who sided with the same plaintiffs in November when she struck down two broader state abortion bans. The venue switch means Owens could hear arguments in the legal challenge to Wyoming’s newest abortion restrictions around the same time as the Wyoming Supreme Court considers her ruling against the broader bans.
In a Tuesday court filing, lawyers for Wyoming abortion providers say the inaction in Natrona County District Court left them with no choice but to refile the case elsewhere, as the new regulations have forced Wyoming’s lone full-service abortion clinic to cease providing reproductive health services.
Abortion providers and advocates filed suit in Natrona County on Feb. 28, the day after the rules went into effect, but the case did not advance. Natrona County is home to Wellspring Health Access, the state’s only facility to provide in-clinic abortions.
The plaintiffs are asking a judge to halt enforcement of the new laws until the court challenge can be heard.
“Although Plaintiffs requested an emergency hearing on their motion for [a temporary restraining order blocking the law], no such hearing was set,” the providers’ newly filed memorandum states. “Because Plaintiffs and their patients are experiencing ongoing, severe, and irreparable injury — including direct harms to Plaintiffs and their patients in Teton County — Plaintiffs have no choice but to dismiss the Prior Action without prejudice and re-file it in the form of the present lawsuit in the hope of securing a timely hearing.”
New laws, new regulations
At issue are two laws passed by the Wyoming Legislature during the session that concluded last week. The first creates a series of new regulations on abortion clinics in Wyoming by requiring such facilities to be licensed as “ambulatory surgical centers.” Abortion rights advocates say rules that come with such a designation are intended to be onerous and impractical. Supporters of the law maintain the regulations are necessary for the safety of women seeking abortions.
The second law requires abortion patients to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound and a 48-hour waiting period prior to receiving abortion medications. The measure prompted a similar debate over whether it was genuinely intended to increase patient safety or simply serve as an obstacle to discourage abortions. Gov. Mark Gordon vetoed the legislation, saying mandating the procedure was invasive and often medically unnecessary, but lawmakers overrode his decision.
Regardless of the new laws’ intent, they had a dramatic effect on Casper’s Wellspring Health Access. The clinic had performed 71 abortions between the start of the year and Feb. 27, founder and president Julie Burkhart wrote in a court document in support of the motion for a temporary restraining order. Immediately after the passage of the new, more intense set of regulations, the clinic ceased providing reproductive health services, and in the following five days, referred 56 patients to other clinics for abortion-related services, almost all of them out of state.
Meeting the new standards demanded of ambulatory surgical centers would require “substantial and costly renovations and reconstruction,” lawyers for the plaintiff write. A further hurdle, they add, is a new requirement that physicians maintain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.
“The laws will force Plaintiff Wellspring to shutter its clinic … and compel many Wyomingites seeking abortions to carry pregnancies to term against their will with all the physical, emotional, and financial costs that entails,” the plaintiffs argue.
Change of venue
The lawyers in the newly filed legal challenge also represented the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the abortion bans passed by lawmakers in 2023. One targets medications; the other is a broader prohibition. That challenge was filed in Teton County, and Owens quickly halted enforcement of the bans with a temporary restraining order. She later ruled they violated the Wyoming Constitution.
One of the plaintiffs in that case — as well as the newly filed lawsuit — is a doctor who practices in Teton County and has provided abortion services in that community. That didn’t stop abortion opponents from arguing that filing the abortion ban challenge in Teton County — a liberal enclave in a deeply conservative state — amounted to venue shopping, or filing the case in a jurisdiction where plaintiffs are more likely to obtain a favorable ruling.
When Owens blocked a ban on medication abortions in June 2023, for example, the Wyoming Freedom Caucus decried her as an activist judge. “The pro-abortion Left can only win by going forum shopping with judicial activists,” the hard-line group wrote on Twitter at the time.
Those who know Owens told WyoFile in 2023 that she’s motivated by the law, not politics.
“Melissa has the ability to avoid the noise around this case, and I think a lot of other attorneys or judges may not,” Casper attorney Pam Brondos said ahead of Owens’ ruling on the abortion bans. “Melissa will follow the law, and I have no doubt that she’s going to make her decision and not be influenced with what’s happening within the political sphere.”
Summer is Wyoming’s season for turning over rocks, poking into holes and walking with a perpetual hunch looking for snakes.
Herpalogists, the zoologists who study amphibians and reptiles, are out scouring the landscape and herping, the term used when they are actively flipping rocks and searching stream beds to find Wyoming’s elusive snakes in their native habitats.
Sometimes those finds can be unexpected. The fork-tongued reptiles appear on a trail when least expected.
Recently, a foot-long “nightcrawler” suddenly moved like a snake and slithered into the rocks, its tail disappearing into the shadows. Rather than a shapeshifter, this was an elusive rubber boa, Wyoming’s tiny constrictor snake that can look like a giant worm at first glance.
These rarely seen creatures are more common in the Cowboy State than most people realize.
“I personally don’t feel that any of our snakes in Wyoming are terribly rare,” said Matt Rasmussen, vice president of the Wyoming Herpetological Society. “However, a lot of them are very rarely encountered because they spend most of their lives either underground or under rocks.”
Rasmussen said most of the secretive snakes in Wyoming only come out at night or when conditions are right — typically warmer, humid times. The rubber boa, for instance, showed up on a day when it had rained and then the temperatures spiked hot.
Rasmussen helped found the new Herpetological Society two years ago to teach others to herp. He said it’s possible to learn more about our state by flipping rocks and seeing what is beneath.
“That’s the great thing with Wyoming,” Rasmussen said. “There is so little known about the herpetofauna — the frogs, lizards, snakes, turtles, etcetera — that live here, and so little known about their distribution.”
He said Wyoming is known for “large charismatic megafauna” such as bison, elk, moose and deer rather than the harder to find animals. As a result, no widespread surveying has been done on smaller non-game species. Wyoming Game and Fish has even asked for community members to help by reporting rarely seen reptiles and amphibians.
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The Great Basin gopher snake is a non-venomous snake found primarily in the western United States and parts of southwestern Canada. You can find these snakes in a wide range of habitats; grasslands, woodlands, and deserts. -
The plains hognose snake can be mistaken for a rattlesnake but is harmless to humans. -
The Eastern yellow-bellied racer is incredibly fast, alert, and primarily hunts during the day using their sharp eyesight. Harmless to humans but feisty and will bite and musky-spray if cornered or handled. -
The smooth green snake is completely non-venomous, quite secretive and rarely seen. The Wyoming Natural Diversity Database said they are mostly found in localized pockets within southeast and south-central Wyoming and the Black Hills area. Their habitat are moist meadows, marshes, stream edges, open woods since they can camouflage in lush vegetation. This snake feeds almost exclusively on insects and spiders such as crickets, grasshoppers and caterpillars.
Elusive, Not Rare
While most people think of the more common bullsnake or venomous rattlesnake when discussing reptiles, Rasmussen said Wyoming is home to many harmless snakes.
According to Rasmussen, a few snakes, such as the colorful pale milk snake and rubber boa, could be considered rare in Wyoming. However, he believes they are just harder to find and most people are not aware of them unless they stumble across them.
“There’s the plains black-headed snake, which we really don’t know much about their distribution in Wyoming,” Rasmussen said. “They’re just not studied and have a limited habitat.”
This tan snake with a black head is small and feeds primarily on centipedes and ant eggs. Rasmussen cautions that when found, rather than kill the strange looking snakes that are harmless, report finding them to Wyoming Game and Fish and leave them in their habitat.
In this way, Rasmussen said, herping can be fun. He encourages people to get into the action.
“There are some other really small fossorial snakes like smooth green snakes, which live along creeks in the mountains and eat caterpillars and spiders,” Rasmussen said. “Then there’s the Black Hills red-bellied snake, which is a very small snake that eats slugs, worms and snails primarily.”
People are often surprised that Wyoming is home to such a large variety of snakes. He especially likes to show off a milk snake, which is harmless and eats lizards and even baby rattlesnakes.
“It is a beautiful, almost tropical-looking animal that lives right here,” Rasmussen said. “They are just rarely encountered.”
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The northern rubber boa is found in the northwest corner of state such as Star Valley and east into the Bighorn Mountains. They are a small, docile, non-venomous constrictors that are rarely seen since they are excellent burrowers and climbers. The Wyoming Game and Fish consider them vulnerable/secretive and track sightings to help build their statewide database. -
The pale milk snake is not a venomous coral snake and is found in the Bighorn Basin, eastern plans and southeastern corner of Wyoming. They are rare to see because they spend their life hiding under rocks, within rocky outcrops, badland scarps, ponderosa pines, and shortgrass prairies according to the University of Wyoming. Since they are so secretive, spotting one in the wild is a rare treat and Wyoming Game and Fish is asking the public to report any sightings for their database. -
The plains black-headed snake is completely harmless because it’s mouth is too small to pierce human skin and its mild venom is for small invertebrates. Due to its secretive nature, it is rare to see one but they are known to be in southeastern Wyoming in the Platte and Carbon Counties. They are very small, secretive, burrowing snakes that spend almost all of their lives underground or hidden beneath rocks and logs, typically only surfacing at night. -
The bull snake or gopher snake is completely non-venomous but does not want you to know that. When threatened, they put on a dramatic show according to the National Park Service. The bullsnake will puff up their bodies, hiss loudly, flatten their head into a triangle and vibrate their tails in dry bush to mimic a rattlesnake. (Matt Rasmussen)
A New Snake & Frog Society
Rasmussen said the new society is trying to educate the community about these fascinating creatures in the Cowboy State that don’t get much attention, such as the skink, a short-legged lizard.
“We’re a group of herpetological enthusiasts who would like to spread the word, educate and do outreach about these animals,” he said.
This outreach includes presentations with live animals, field trips and a conference in November. Wyoming’s reptiles and amphibians remain a mystery, Rasmussen encourages reporting sightings on the app iNaturalist.
“Even if you don’t know what it is, post a picture because there are tens of thousands of experts who will identify that animal,” Rasmussen said. “That’s really important, especially for our herpetofauna in the state.”
He also pointed out that some Wyoming snakes are on the protected list, including the midget faded rattlesnake. They made the list, according to Rasmussen, because people were capturing them and they became popular in among owners who like to keep small venomous snakes as pets.
Rasmussen said awareness is the best protection for Wyoming’s elusive reptiles and he is excited to prove to residents that we don’t have rare snakes, only secretive ones.
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
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