A bill that would have required women seeking medication abortions to get ultrasounds has been vetoed by Wyoming's Republican governor, who questioned whether it was reasonable and necessary especially for victims of rape and incest.
“Mandating this intimate, personally invasive, and often medically unnecessary procedure goes too far,” Gov. Mark Gordon wrote in a letter explaining his veto late Monday.
Groups working to maintain abortion access in Wyoming — the first state to attempt to explicitly outlaw medication abortions — praised the veto even though Gordon over the past three years has signed into law several bills seeking to ban the procedure.
“It’s important that women are able to access this health care without undue and unnecessary burden," Christine Lichtenfels, executive director of the abortion access advocate Chelsea's Fund, said Tuesday.
The bill would have required women planning medication abortions to arrange and potentially drive long distances for ultrasound appointments in the rural state.
Abortion remains legal in Wyoming pending the outcome of a lawsuit before the state supreme court challenging the bans. Abortion access has dwindled, however, since Wyoming's lone full-service abortion clinic stopped providing both pill and surgical abortions after Gordon signed a bill into law last week.
That new law requires clinics providing surgical abortions to be licensed surgical centers. Unable to immediately meet that requirement and wary of legal implications, Wellspring Health Access in Casper suspended all abortion services Friday.
As a result, more Wyoming women are likely to travel to Colorado and other states where abortion remains legal and accessible.
Wellspring Health Access President Julie Burkhart praised Gordon's veto in a statement and noted the clinic is still taking calls from patients.
“Despite these new restrictions, Wellspring Health Access remains open. We have not — and will not — abandon our patients. We are here for them, now and always,” Burkhart said.
Wellspring is among those challenging the bans and the new licensing requirement in court.
The vetoed bill would have added a restriction to the vast majority of abortions in Wyoming. The Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights, found that more than 3 in 5 abortions used pills in the U.S. through the formal health care system in 2023.
Wyoming had the biggest portion of abortions via pill that year: 19 in 20.
Abortion medication remains available in Wyoming through the Just the Pill telehealth service and online providers such as Abuzz, The Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project, and Aid Access, according to Chelsea's Fund.
A family medicine physician in Jackson who has been dispensing abortion medication to Wyoming patients in recent months did not immediately return a phone message Tuesday asking if they were still doing so.
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