CHEYENNE–Gov. Mark Gordon signed legislation that will place new and more onerous regulations on Wyoming clinics that perform abortions, potentially forcing the state’s lone provider of in-clinic abortions to close its doors.
Casper’s Wellspring Health Access is the one facility in Wyoming that provides in-clinic abortions. It’s also among the plaintiffs who sued the state over its abortion bans. A representative for the clinic was not immediately available for comment.
The governor’s office announced he’d signed the bill in a press release Thursday night. Gordon had until midnight to either sign it, veto it or let it become law without his signature.
Gordon vetoed similar legislation last year, largely blaming an amendment that tacked on a mandatory transvaginal ultrasound before taking abortion medication. That requirement is in a separate bill this year and is currently up for consideration by the governor.
House Bill 42, “Regulation of surgical abortions,” requires facilities that provide abortions to be licensed as ambulatory surgical centers, which are health care facilities that perform surgeries but are not hospitals. The classification comes with Department of Health inspections, rules and regulations, such as building codes.
Effective immediately, the bill also requires clinic doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital not more than 10 miles away.
“Abortion currently remains legal in Wyoming, thus the need to regulate abortion,” Worland Republican Rep. Martha Lawley, the bill’s main sponsor, told lawmakers this session.
Ahead of Gordon’s decision, Wellspring said it had not yet decided if it would challenge the law on the basis that Wyoming’s constitution prohibits special laws — or statutes that apply to a specific group of people, things or places, rather than the general public.
In November, a Teton County judge ruled Wyoming’s abortion bans are unconstitutional.
This is a breaking news story and may be updated.
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