Wyoming gov. signs trans medical care ban for minors, vetoes abortion bill
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon has signed legislation into law that bans gender-affirming care for trans minors. He also vetoed a bill that would have erected significant barriers to abortion in the state.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Wyoming’s governor on Friday vetoed a bill that would have erected significant barriers to abortion, should it remain legal in the state, and signed legislation banning gender-affirming care for minors.
The abortion bill rejected by Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, would have required facilities providing surgical abortions to be licensed as outpatient surgical centers, adding to their cost and the burdens they face to operate.
Women would have had to get ultrasounds no less than 48 hours before either a surgical or pill abortion to determine the fetus’s gestational age and location and viability of the pregnancy.
Abortion is legal in Wyoming pending the outcome of a lawsuit challenging new laws to ban the procedure. The bill was aimed at the state’s only full-service abortion clinic, Wellspring Health Access. The Casper facility opened in 2023 — almost a year later than planned after being badly burned in an arson attack by a woman who opposed abortion.
Gordon said in announcing the veto that the measure would have “properly regulated” clinics. But he said amendments added by lawmakers made it vulnerable to legal challenge.
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