Wyoming’s governor and attorney general have approached the state’s supreme court, urging it to revisit a contentious decision that upholds abortion as a right protected by the state constitution. Their appeal underscores a belief that the court deviated from established protocol without their prior notification.

On January 6, Governor Mark Gordon publicly declared his request for Attorney General Keith Kautz to submit a petition for reconsideration within a 15-day timeframe regarding the court’s ruling on abortion. True to this timeline, the petition was duly filed on Tuesday. Governor Gordon expressed his “deep disappointment” with the court’s decision, which delved into the historical context of the state’s stance on abortion dating back to 2012.

In a detailed 70-page ruling, the state’s supreme court recalled the 2012 amendment to the Wyoming Constitution, which empowered citizens to make independent healthcare decisions. This amendment, intended as a countermeasure to the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, allowed the legislature to impose reasonable restrictions to protect public health and welfare, while ensuring that these rights were shielded from excessive government interference.

Fast forward to 2023, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision to overturn Roe v. Wade the previous year, Wyoming’s legislature enacted the “Life is a Human Right Act.” This law aimed to restrict abortions, permitting them only under certain conditions, and banned the use of drugs for abortion purposes. However, this legislative move was met with legal challenges from a coalition of medical professionals, nonprofit organizations, and an individual woman, who contended that such laws infringed upon constitutional rights within the state.

The initial ruling by a trial court favored the plaintiffs, prompting the state to appeal the decision, thereby bringing the matter before the Wyoming Supreme Court.

While considering the case, the state’s high court said it focused on a single issue: “Do the Wyoming laws restricting abortions unjustifiably limit a woman’s state constitutional right to make her own health care decisions?” They determined that they indeed do, stating “all five Wyoming Supreme Court justices agreed that the decision whether to terminate or continue a pregnancy is a woman’s own health care decision.”

Gordon, however, argued that the “profoundly unfortunate” ruling “only serves to prolong the ultimate and proper resolution of this issue.”

“This ruling may settle, for now, a legal question, but it does not settle the moral one, nor does it reflect where many Wyoming citizens stand, including myself,” he wrote, also on Jan. 6. Gordon then indicated his intention for citizens to vote on a constitutional amendment concerning abortion this fall that “would trump any and all judicial decisions.”

Before then, though, if Gordon and Kautz — himself a former state supreme court justice — get their way, the Wyoming justices will reconsider their ruling, which the attorney general’s office suggested contained “a number of legal errors.”

As Cowboy State Daily reported, the state’s chief attorney contends that the justices ignored precedent and approached the case in a manner more favorable to the plaintiffs. As Wyoming Special Assistant Attorney General Jay Jerde, who wrote the filing, puts it, the high court moved away from the established standard — under which the plaintiffs would need to show that there is “no set of circumstances” in which the abortion laws could be constitutional — and instead determined that the plaintiffs only needed to show that the laws are unconstitutional as to the state’s interaction with them.

The attorney general’s office maintains that the high court “changed the legal rules governing this case after the parties had presented briefing and argument under a different set of rules.” In doing so, the justices “deprived this Court of vigorous adversarial argument on the issue.”

Jerde also argues that the Wyoming Supreme Court contradicted itself, suggesting one justice just “apparently changed her mind” from a previous case.

As the state news source notes, the Wyoming Supreme Court does not need to grant the request for a rehearing.

As it stands, abortion is legal throughout pregnancy in Wyoming.