Once again, an activist judge blocked two Wyoming laws that passed overwhelmingly in both House and Senate.
Judge Thomas Campell granted a preliminary injunction to prevent enforcement of House Bill 42, which brings surgical abortion centers up to the same standards of cleanliness as other surgical centers. He also enjoined House Bill 64, which keeps quacks from harming women by blindly prescribing chemical abortion drugs.
For three years running, the same cabal of abortion enthusiasts (Johnson, et. al) has been waging lawfare against the people of Wyoming. All the while, activist judges ensure politically correct answers by asking the wrong questions.
When the U.S. Supreme Court finally admitted the illegitimacy of landmark abortion case Roe vs. Wade after a half-century of gaslighting, Wyoming reinstated variations of the abortion bans that had been in place since territorial days.
But Teton County District Court Judge Melissa Owens knew better. She singlehandedly overruled Wyoming’s Constitution, elected legislature, governor, and the U.S. Supreme Court itself. Now, Campbell has followed her lead.
Judges who keep elected lawmakers and executives from doing their jobs commit domestic violence on the body politic. Not only do they give Wyoming a black eye, they brutalize her babies.
The Wyoming Constitution forbids judges, lawmakers, and governors from denying members of the human race their right to life (Art. 1, Sec. 2).
No human being should be deprived of life “without due process of law” (Sec. 6). That is not an “emanation from a penumbra.” It is plain English in the very first article of our Constitution.
Wyoming Statute 35-6-121 hammers home the point: “The legislature, in the exercise of its constitutional duties and powers, has a fundamental duty to provide equal protection for all human lives, including unborn babies from conception”
In Wyoming, it is both illegal and unconstitutional to withhold equal protection from the unborn.
Even Johnson et al. argued as much before the Wyoming Supreme Court. Their attorney, Peter Modlin, told the justices that killing an unborn person’s uterine siblings might save the unborn baby’s life. While his argument is legally obscene, it nevertheless proves that even they agree that unborn babies are alive.
This is the central issue upon which every other judgment depends. We should not lose sight of this fact.
Sadly, this central issue has been eclipsed and obscured. By focusing on the abstract issue of whether abortion is health care, the courts have avoided any direct dealing with the constitutional requirement to protect every human being.
So, let’s put it plainly. Johnson et al. argue that the constitutional “right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” does not include unborn human beings. The people of the state of Wyoming disagree. Represented by an overwhelming majority of the legislature and the elected governor, they argue that unborn babies are constitutionally protected.
Before taking up any other question, the courts should come clean on this one. Are unborn babies included or excluded?
It is quite simply impossible to talk meaningfully about “health care” without caring about the status of the unborn. If “equal protection for all human lives, includes unborn babies from conception,” killing them is considerably more unconstitutional than protecting them.
Since the people of Wyoming, their elected legislators and their elected governor all agree that unborn babies are constitutionally protected, the matter of a preliminary injunction comes into sharper focus.
Campbell states in his ruling that “the purpose of a preliminary injunction is to preserve the status quo until the merits of an action can be determined.”
Just so.
While we are waiting for the courts to come clean about whether unborn babies are constitutionally protected, we must prevent actions that do irreversible harm to anyone who might prove that she has a right to the state’s protection.
The problem is that Campbell considered only the possible monetary harms to abortion mills and pill-pushers. He did not consider the kids.
But money can be remade. Lost profits can be reproduced. Courts have the power to levy fines and damages. But to restore life is not in any man’s power. Once taken, a life is gone forever. Only God can bring it back.
The death of people who are protected by the Wyoming Constitution is the only irreparable harm here. How could anyone miss that fact?
While the law is in dispute, the unborn child’s life should be protected. It’s really that simple.
Wise judges will defer to the Judge who has power to raise the dead. In the meantime, we should not allow people to destroy what they have no power to repair.
Jonathan Lange is a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod pastor in Evanston and Kemmerer and serves the Wyoming Pastors Network. Follow his blog at https://jonathanlange.substack.com/. Email: JLange64@protonmail.com.
