CHEYENNE — A bill to restrict the circulation and use of abortion medications is up for consideration again this session as Wyoming’s abortion ban continues to be litigated in court.
Under the legislation, no person would legally be allowed to “manufacture, distribute, prescribe, dispense, sell, transfer or use” any medication in Wyoming meant to be used for an abortion.
It defines said medication, which the bill calls “chemical abortion” drugs, as “mifepristone, misoprostol, mifeprex, mifegyne or any substantially similar generic or non‑generic drug or chemical dispensed for purposes of causing an abortion.”
Anyone who violates the rule would be subject to a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months of imprisonment or up to a $9,000 fine, or both.
Those restrictions don’t apply to the treatment of a natural miscarriage, or treatment in the case that the person’s pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or if their health or life is in danger. That exception doesn’t apply to psychological or emotional conditions.
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They also don’t apply to the “sale, use, prescription or administration” of contraceptives that a person might use “before conception, or before a pregnancy can be confirmed through conventional medical testing.”
The person who is subject to an attempted or completed abortion using medications also wouldn’t be subject to the punishments outlined in the proposed statute.
Though an abortion ban took effect briefly in Wyoming following the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade over the summer, the ban is blocked for now, and some abortions in the state continue to be legal as the state’s ban is being challenged for its constitutionality in court. It’s very likely that the case will eventually be referred to the Wyoming Supreme Court.
Salazar sponsored the same bill last year, during the session in which the Legislature passed the state’s abortion trigger ban. His bill this year has a whopping 38 cosponsors, many of whom are freshmen lawmakers.
It’s not clear how the bill, if it became law, would be affected by the outcome of the ongoing lawsuit challenging Wyoming’s abortion trigger ban. Salazar did not immediately respond to the Star-Tribune’s attempts to reach him for comment.
