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Abortion in Wyoming is legal up to fetal viability. A temporary courtinjunction was filed against an attempted near total abortion ban in 2023, and a Wyoming judge struck down the abortion ban in 2024.[1][2]
After theU.S. Supreme Court overruledRoe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, inDobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization,abortion ceased to be a federally protected right.
On March 15, 2022, Wyoming's legislature passed HB92, atrigger law that would ban abortion beginning five days after the overturn ofRoe v. Wade.[3] Under HB92, abortion is illegal except for cases of rape, incest (reported to law enforcement) and serious risk of death or "substantial and irreversible physical impairments" for the pregnant woman.[4]
On March 17, 2023,Wyoming GovernorMark Gordon signed a law banning abortion pills, becoming the first state in the country to do so.[5] However, the ban was found unconstitutional and struck down on November 18, 2024.[6]
In February 2025, Wyoming passed House Bill 42, requiring abortion facilities to meet ambulatory surgical center requirements, and House Bill 64, mandating that women undergo an ultrasound before taking abortion pills. Governor Mark Gordon signed HB42 into law, but vetoed HB64, claiming it was too invasive. The Wyoming legislature overrode his veto, enacting HB64.[7][8] The regulations forced Wellspring Health Access, the state's only abortion clinic, to cease abortion services.[9][10] However, the laws were blocked on April 21, 2025.[11]
Abortion was a criminal offence in Wyoming in 1950. Less-restrictive abortion legislation was introduced in 1997 but not passed. In 2013, a fetalheartbeat bill was introduced in theWyoming House of Representatives but never made it out of committee. In January 2017, a mandatory ultrasound law went into effect, however, it lacked an enforcement mechanism.
The number ofabortion clinics in the state has been on the decline since the late 20th century, going from eight in 1982 to five in 1992 to one in 2014, and remaining at that total in 2016, 2017 and 2019. At the same time, a few medical facilities in the state have quietly offered abortion services to women. In 2017, 140 abortions took place in the state, representing nearly 0.0% of all such procedures in the US that year.[12] Some Wyomingites participated inStop the Bans rallies in May 2019 to advocate for women's right to abortion.[13]
The 2023 American Values Atlas reported that, in their most recent survey, 52% of people from Wyoming said that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.[14]
In 2017, there were medical facilities that would perform abortions, but they did not make this information public, and women could only find out about these services if they were existing patients.[15]
In 1950, the state legislature passed a law stating that a woman who had an abortion or actively sought to have an abortion regardless of whether she went through with it was guilty of a criminal offense.[16] It is not clear how often the law was enforced. A bill protecting women's access to abortion was introduced in 1997 but did not succeed in getting a floor vote.[17]
A fetal heartbeat bill, HB 97, was introduced in theWyoming House of Representatives in January 2013 byKendell Kroeker; however, in February 2013 the bill was struck down by a house committee in a 4–5 vote.[18][19] The state legislature was one of five states nationwide that tried to pass such a bill that year.[20] On July 1, 2017, a law passed by the state legislature went into effect the prohibited the sale of fetal tissue. Another law that went into effect that day required abortion service providers to give women seeking abortions anultrasound, but it had no enforcement component.[15] As of May 14, 2019, the state prohibited abortions afterthe fetus was viable, generally some point between week 24 and 28. This period uses a standard defined by theUS Supreme Court in 1973 with theRoe v. Wade ruling.[20]
TheUS Supreme Court's decision in 1973'sRoe v. Wade ruling meant the state could not regulate abortion in the first trimester.[16] However, the Supreme Court overturnedRoe v. Wade inDobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, No.19-1392, 597 U.S. ___ (2022) later in 2022.[21][22] However, a judge in Wyoming found that abortion bans violate the state constitution's clause providing for the right of Wyomingites to make their own health care decisions, passed ina 2012 ballot measure[23] The abortion ban was struck down in November 2024 by Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens.[2]
Between 1982 and 1992, the total number of abortion clinics in the state declined by three, going from eight to five.[17] In 1990, family practice Emerg-A-Care opened inJackson as urgent care so that tourists in the area would feel comfortable visiting if they needed medical treatment. Among the services they offered were abortion services.[15]
In 2014, there officially was one abortion clinic in the state;[24] 96% of counties in the state did not have an abortion clinic, and 96% of women in the state aged 15–44 lived in a county without an abortion clinic.[25] In March 2016, there was only onePlanned Parenthood clinic in the state.[26] After Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains switched from directly billing women to directly billing Medicaid in 2016, it ran into funding bills as Medicaid has low reimbursement rates. Consequently, it was forced to close two clinics in Colorado and the one in Wyoming in July 2017, making Wyoming one of only two states without one.[27] North Dakota, Wyoming, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia were the only six states as of July 21, 2017, that did not have a Planned Parenthood clinic offering abortion services.[27] In 2017, there was still only one abortion clinic in Wyoming, but there were claims of two other providers in Jackson Hole that privately would perform abortions for existing patients. These health centers provided around one to five abortions a year.[15] Emerg-A-Care also served women fromEastern Idaho. Less than 0.5% of their practice involved providing abortion services. Of the abortions performed in 2017, 80% were medical.[15] In 2020, Emerg-A-Care was sold to a local hospital.[28]
In the period between 1972 and 1974, there were zero reported illegal abortion deaths in the state.[29] In 1990, 50,000 women were at risk of unintended pregnancies.[17] In 2014, 48% of adults said in a poll by thePew Research Center that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.[30] In 2017, the state had an infant mortality rate of 4.6 deaths per 1,000 live births. High infant mortality and lack of access to reproductive health care are closely correlated in Wyoming, as in many other states.[31]
| Census division and state | Number | Rate | % change 1992–1996 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 1995 | 1996 | 1992 | 1995 | 1996 | ||
| US total | 1,528,930 | 1,363,690 | 1,365,730 | 25.9 | 22.9 | 22.9 | –12 |
| Mountain | 69,600 | 63,390 | 67,020 | 21 | 17.9 | 18.6 | –12 |
| Arizona | 20,600 | 18,120 | 19,310 | 24.1 | 19.1 | 19.8 | –18 |
| Colorado | 19,880 | 15,690 | 18,310 | 23.6 | 18 | 20.9 | –12 |
| Idaho | 1,710 | 1,500 | 1,600 | 7.2 | 5.8 | 6.1 | –15 |
| Montana | 3,300 | 3,010 | 2,900 | 18.2 | 16.2 | 15.6 | –14 |
| Nevada | 13,300 | 15,600 | 15,450 | 44.2 | 46.7 | 44.6 | 1 |
| New Mexico | 6,410 | 5,450 | 5,470 | 17.7 | 14.4 | 14.4 | –19 |
| Utah | 3,940 | 3,740 | 3,700 | 9.3 | 8.1 | 7.8 | –16 |
| Wyoming | 460 | 280 | 280 | 4.3 | 2.7 | 2.7 | –37 |
| Location | Residence | Occurrence | % obtained by out-of-state residents | Year | Ref | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Rate^ | Ratio^^ | No. | Rate^^ | Ratio^^ | ||||
| Wyoming | 642 | 5.8 | 83 | — | — | — | — | 2014 | [33] |
| Wyoming | 493 | 4.5 | 67 | — | — | — | — | 2016 | [34] |
| ^number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44; ^^number of abortions per 1,000 live births | |||||||||
In 1998, women could only receive public funds for an abortion if continuing the pregnancy put their life at risk, if the pregnancy was a result of rape that was reported within five days of it occurring, or was a result of incest.[17] In 2010, the state had zero publicly funded abortions.[35]
Women from the state participated in rallies supporting access to abortion as part of theStop the Bans (#StoptheBans) effort in May 2019. Wyoming Equality was one of the organizers for the Cheyenne #StoptheBans protest that drew women from across the state.[36]
Following the overturn ofRoe v. Wadeon June 24, 2022, dozens of abortion rights protestors rallied and marched outside Wyoming's only clinic offering abortion services inCasper.[37]
In 1994, a domestic terrorist responsible for attacks in multiple states bombed the Emerg-A-Care health center in Jackson during the night, causing large amounts of smoke damage that resulted in the clinic being closed for several weeks.[15]
On May 25, 2022, a masked woman set a fire at a planned abortion clinic inCasper, Wyoming. The ATF offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to her arrest.[38]
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