By Dave Andrusko
Sponsored by state Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, Gov. Mark Gordon just signed House Bill 92, a bill which will ban abortions in Wyoming when the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. HB 92 would take effect five days after the date the Wyoming attorney general certifies to the secretary of state the High Court has overturned Roe v. Wade. Wyoming is the 13th state to enact a so-called “trigger law.”
“A trigger bill is an abortion ban in waiting,” Rodriguez-Williams told lawmakers in February. “The vast majority of Wyomingites support life from conception to natural death.”
HB 92 states that an abortion “shall not be performed, except when necessary to preserve the woman from a serious risk of death or of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function, not including any psychological or emotional conditions,” wrote Carrie Haderlie for the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
The ACLU of Wyoming criticized the new law. “House Bill 92 puts unsound and unworkable processes into statute and deprives Wyomingites of one of their most fundamental freedoms,” said Libby Skarin, ACLU of Wyoming campaigns director, in a statement.
HB, the ACLU says, “improperly assigns the executive branch the responsibility of enacting law based upon future hypothetical case outcomes and creates a codified, inflexible mandate that lacks clarity,” according Jennifer Kocher.
Skarin added, “Gov. Gordon’s decision to sign this bill into law is disappointing,’ but the fight for abortion rights in Wyoming isn’t over.”