An abortion rights protest in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on June 24, 2022, the day that the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Photo: Natalie Behring/Getty Images
A judge in Wyoming on Wednesday temporarily blocked the state's trigger abortion ban, just hours after the law took effect.
Driving the news: Health providers filed a lawsuit against Wyoming state officials earlier this week challenging the law, saying that it violates the state's constitution because it takes away people's rights around family composition and making decisions around their private health care.
- "Wyomingites who have relied on safe, legal access to abortion for decades will lose the right to determine the composition of their families and whether and when to become parents; the right to be free from state laws that perpetuate stereotypes about women and their proper societal role; the right to bodily autonomy and ... the right to make private health care decisions and to keep those health care decisions free from public scrutiny," the lawsuit says.
State of play: Those suing include a nonprofit opening a women’s and LGBTQ health clinic that would have offered abortions, but whose opening was delayed from mid-June to the end of this year due to an arson attack that happened in May, AP reports.
Details: Wyoming's trigger law makes nearly all abortions illegal, unless it's necessary to keep someone "from a serious risk of death or of substantial and irreversible physical impairment," or if the pregnancy is a result of incest or sexual assault.
- The law took effect on Wednesday, five days after the governor certified to the secretary of state that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, which Gov. Mark Gordon (R) did last Friday.