Wyoming became the latest state to ban abortion after a heartbeat is detected. The law follows the state’s Supreme Court ruling that a stricter abortion ban was unconstitutional.
Governor Mark Gordon (R) signed the bill and declared that “life is sacred.”
“Despite the upright, moral intentions behind HEA 29, I believe this Act very likely puts us back in the all too familiar and unfortunate territory of pro-life litigation,” Gordon wrote in a letter to Wyoming House Speaker Chip Nieman. “It does not offer the durable solution I had hoped for, and it does not put the issue before the people of Wyoming from whom, according to Article 1 of our Wyoming Constitution, all governmental power derives.”
“I resoundingly share the determination to defend the lives of unborn children and support the intentions behind the Human Heartbeat Act,” Gordon added. “Regrettably, this Act represents another well-intentioned but likely fragile legal effort with significant risk of ending in the courts rather than in lasting, durable policy. Rather than finding a remedy that saves the unborn, I fear we have only added another chapter to the sad saga of repeatedly trying to force a specific solution.”
According to the law, “no person shall perform, induce, attempt to
perform or attempt to induce a termination of pregnancy” if the unborn child has a “detectable fetal heartbeat” or if the “person fails or has failed to make the determination of whether the unborn child has a detectable fetal heartbeat” under another state statute.
In line with its pro-life stance, there are no Planned Parenthood sites in the state of Wyoming.
