Committee OKs abortion regulations while courts debate access

Rep. Martha Lawley, R-Worland, one of the bill’s sponsors, said that the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, and lawmakers passed a bill prohibiting abortions in Wyoming, with limited exceptions, last year. However, “abortion remains legal in Wyoming,” Lawley said, referencing Teton County District Court Judge Melissa Owens’ 2023 stay on a state law prohibiting abortion, and a possible appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court.

“As long as abortion remains legal, we have a responsibility to protect the health and the safety of women getting abortions,” Lawley said.

HB 148, she said, provides for “common sense regulations” for surgical abortions that “protect the health and the safety of women who choose to get them.”

It would require that physicians at a surgical abortion facility have admitting privileges at a hospital within 10 miles, so that women with complications could be admitted with their records to that hospital. It would also require inspection by and reporting to the Wyoming Department of Health, but a once-a-year inspection requirement was successfully amended to one inspection every three years, as consistent with other WDH practices, on Monday.

Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie, asked why, if the intention of the law is to protect the wellbeing of patients in Wyoming, the same licensure and reporting requirements are not applied to procedures with a higher rate of mortality.

“The mortality rate for this is 0.7%, for surgical abortions, per 100,000 (people),” Provenza said. “Colonoscopies have a much higher rate of mortality. So, are we going to start providing the same statutes for men who get colonoscopies?”

Lawley responded that she does not view mortality as the only risk in a surgical abortion.

“Of course we don’t want that, but many women, when they have a botched abortion, face never having children again,” she said. “They face all kinds of health issues. This is common sense regulation, and it is the obligation of the state to provide for the safety and health of women who get abortions.”

Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody, asked whose mortality is being considered.

“(Rep. Provenza) talked about the term mortality, but didn’t specify if we are talking about the mortality of the patient, or the mortality of the other human being that is with the pregnant woman receiving services from these clinics,” she said. “Can you elaborate?”

“The child obviously dies in an abortion,” Lawley responded.

During public testimony on the bill, Deacon Mike Leman, representing the Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne, said that he especially favored the admitting requirement in the bill, which would create a relationship between surgical abortion providers and local hospitals. Without that, he said, an emergency department physician may be faced with situations wherein they have to complete a “failed abortion” when a woman with no background comes into the ER for care.

“You know that your next steps could potentially put you in a moral quandary, knowing that you might be asked to do something in the process of attempting to save the mom’s life, finishing the job, so to speak, that was started at another facility,” Leman said. “This isn’t made up theory. We have been made aware of two circumstances where this has happened this year.

“So, I think this legislation is necessary,” he said.

Dr. Rene Hinkle, a Cheyenne OBGYN, said that she opposes HB 148. She said she is pro-choice, and has been a registered Republican her “whole life.” Surgical abortions, she said, are very safe. If they are to be regulated, so should other procedures.

“If you are going to regulate abortions and have it not be considered discriminatory toward women, I agree with Rep. Provenza that you will also have to regulate all of these other procedures that are done in clinics across the state,” Hinkle said.

She also noted that a 10-mile admittance requirement to a local hospital does not match requirements for other surgical facilities, which must have admitting privileges within 50 miles of their location.