Wellspring Health Access, the only reproductive care clinic in Wyoming to offer surgical abortions, has experienced several setbacks in its short existence.
An arsonist set fire to the clinic, located in a small beige building on Casper’s busy Second Street, in May 2022 when it was still under construction. Less than a month later, the U.S. Supreme Court released its opinion on Dobbs, effectively overturning Roe v. Wade. The high court’s decision triggered a ban on abortion in Wyoming per a state law passed during the 2022 legislative session. The clinic joined a group of plaintiffs who sued the state, asserting the bans were unconstitutional. A court injunction kept abortion temporarily legal while the case was reviewed, and yet despite the uncertainty, Wellspring rebuilt from the fire, opening in April 2023. The clinic has offered care since, but with a small but vociferous group of protesters often hovering around the building, which staff say can intimidate and confuse clients.
Opening a clinic that offers abortion services in such a deeply red state was bound to come with hardships, and that was part of the point, clinic president and founder Julie Burkhart said.
“We’ve had our share of heartache and headaches,” she said. “However, people in all corners of the United States, no matter where you live — and this includes Wyoming — deserve access to all types of health care. And reproductive health care is one of those … So that makes it worth it.”
Burkhart and her staff were “delighted” with the recent ruling by Teton County Ninth District Court Judge Melissa Owens that struck down the abortion bans for violating a state constitutional amendment. With Gov. Mark Gordon vowing to appeal and anti-abortion lawmakers planning their next moves, however, the matter isn’t close to over.
In the meantime, Wyoming’s two abortion providers — the six physicians at Wellspring Health Access and one doctor who works out of St. John’s Hospital in Jackson — can continue to offer their services.
Though there are just two physical locations, the providers — coupled with the availability of telehealth and abortion medication by mail — actually provide more abortion access in Wyoming than existed before the trigger ban went into effect, Burkhart believes. Wellspring alone has served more than 700 patients in all manner of reproductive health, including family planning, OB-GYN exams and abortions, she said.
But if the abortion battle has proved anything in the last two years, it’s that the narrative can change quickly. And anti-abortion lawmakers and activists have vowed to continue the fight to ban the procedure within state lines.
Challenges to abortion
When Owens granted the summary judgment order Nov. 18 finding Wyoming’s abortion bands unconstitutional, it was the latest in more than two years of filings and litigation over the matter.
The Wyoming Legislature in March 2022 passed a “trigger bill” that would enact a ban in the state should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Roe vs. Wade. In response, Wellspring and other plaintiffs filed suit to prevent Wyoming’s abortion ban from going into effect. Along with Wellspring, plaintiffs include two birthing-age women, obstetricians and Chelsea’s Fund, which helps pay for abortion services.
The suit kicked off the blizzard of filings and responses as well as a shuffling of the case between courts. In the meantime, Owens blocked enforcement of the ban while the court weighed the case.
While that lawsuit worked its way forward, state lawmakers drafted new abortion bans. Those included the near-total abortion ban, House Bill 152 – Life is a Human Right Act, and a ban on using medications to induce abortion called Senate File 109 – Prohibiting chemical abortions. Both passed the Legislature, though Gordon only signed the latter, letting the former go into effect without his signature.
The same group who’d challenged the trigger ban levied a new, preemptive legal challenge against the near-total ban. Owens in response issued a new restraining order. The lawsuit soon grew to challenge the medication ban, too, and Owens also halted its enforcement.
The heart of the plaintiffs’ argument is that the bans violate several sections of the state constitution. They say the bans are unconstitutionally vague and violate rights to make health care decisions, equal protections, religious rights and unenumerated rights.
“Abortion is part of health care, and that’s what we provide for our patients amongst other services,” Burkhart said.
Abortion isn’t health care, the state counters, citing dictionary definitions of “health” that describe it as being of sound mind, body and soul, especially free from pain or illness. Even if the court concluded that abortion is health care, the state contends it’s not a health care decision protected by the Wyoming Constitution.
A major flashpoint in this case is a 2012 constitutional amendment that protects competent adults’ “right to make his or her own health care decisions.” It also allows the Legislature to “determine reasonable and necessary restrictions” on that right.
In her recent decision, Owens concluded a near-total ban on abortion and a prohibition against abortion medications do conflict with that constitutional amendment.
“The Court concludes that the Abortion Statutes suspend a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions during the entire term of a pregnancy and are not reasonable or necessary to protect the health and general welfare of the people,” Owens wrote.
The decision keeps most abortions legal in the state, though the Wyoming Supreme Court will have the final say.
Continued services
Wellspring’s location in Casper was intentional. The city is in the middle of the state, with Interstate 25 flowing by. The vast majority of its patients are Wyoming residents, Burkhart said, followed by residents of South Dakota.
Wellspring provides procedural abortion services for up to 23.6 weeks of pregnancy as well as medication abortions. It also provides a range of other reproductive health care services. Wellspring employs six traveling physicians and six other medical and clinical staff.
The clinic has a strong social media presence and did a lot of work, Burkhart said, to keep its patients updated to prevent confusion about whether or not abortions were legal in Wyoming as the case has unfolded.
Chelsea’s Fund Executive Director Christine Lichtenfels said her staff has worked to “make sure people understand that abortion is and has been legal during this time period, and that there are providers willing to give them care.”
Along with Wyoming’s two in-person providers, Lichtenfels said, Just the Pill’s telehealth and mail service is helpful in a state where people are so spread out. As a plaintiff in the abortion litigation, Lichtenfels said the efforts have been well worth it.
“We’re aware that legislators are looking at options [to introduce further abortion legislation], but at this point, Judge Owens has ruled, and her ruling is what stands,” Lichtenfels said. “She was just very clear in acknowledging, in recognizing and finding that the bans are a real and present danger to the health of women.”
The district court ruling bodes well, Burkhart thinks, for a future Wyoming Supreme Court decision. “We hope to be able to continue to provide care to people in Wyoming for years to come,” she said.
Not bowing out
Anti-abortion activists decried Owens’ decision and expressed their intent to continue the effort to prohibit a practice they consider inhumane.
Reps. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, (R-Cody) and Chip Neiman (R-Hulett), prominent anti-abortion legislators who unsuccessfully sought to directly intervene in the legal case in defense of the laws, said on Facebook that Wyoming’s court system abandoned innocent lives in an appalling decision.
In an online post titled, “We will never stop fighting for the right to life,” the hard-line Wyoming Freedom Caucus called Owens an “activist judge” who parroted “the radical propaganda of Planned Parenthood and the like” in her decision.
That post urged supporters to contact Gordon and state lawmakers, among other actions.
Gordon, meanwhile, said he remains “committed to defending the constitutionality of this law and the sanctity of life.” The Wyoming Attorney General will prepare an appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court, he said.
This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
