The Wyoming state House of Representatives moved forward late Tuesday night on a nasty, if typical, bill limiting women’s reproductive freedom. The 48-hour waiting period bill was defeated in 2019 and passed out of the House Judiciary Committee this time even over some Republican opposition, with one Republican representative calling it “an example of governmental infringement into health care.”
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Richard Tass, says that a 48-hour waiting period allows women to “reflect” on their decision and “consider the ramifications of their decision,” as if women just up and decide to have any major medical treatment on a whim, let alone terminating a pregnancy. But that whole “reflect” thing is even more dishonest than it sounds: The bill threatens doctors with felony charges and up to 10 years of prison time if they perform an abortion less than 48 hours after first talking to a patient about what the procedure entails.
The bill, which would be the second new anti-abortion law passed in Wyoming in the past two years, also bans abortion after the fetus is “viable,” a term that introduces a lot of complication, since there isn’t universal agreement on what constitutes viability. However, neither of the state’s two—count them, two—providers does abortions after the first trimester, so the question is unlikely to be seriously tested in Wyoming.
Both of those clinics are located in Jackson, so in many cases, Wyoming women would be leaving the state to obtain abortions, often going to Colorado or even, reportedly, Utah (go figure). The travel distances involved here highlight the burden of a 48-hour waiting period, which in many cases may be tacked on to nearly a full day of driving—a huge problem for women who may lose pay for every day they have to take off of work to exercise their rights.
The state Senate is expected to pass the bill once it passes a final vote in the House.