Imagine if the Epstein files exposed not only the sordid past, but ongoing crimes.
Now, imagine judges who blocked every law enforcement effort to protect the children. That, in essence, is how the Roe Court, for decades, forced Americans to watch helplessly while millions of innocents were dismembered and poisoned.
Now, Wyoming’s own Supreme Court has done it again. Its State v. Johnson ruling, which denied that Life is a Human Right, calls into question the legitimacy of the Court by reneging on its constitutional promise to protect the life of “every member of the human race.” In the process, it also strips constitutional protections from Wyoming’s women.
Embedded in the Life is a Human Right Act were also statutory protections for the life and health of the mother. By calling abortion “health care” without holding abortionists to the same standards as other physicians, the Court left loopholes that unethical abortionists exploit.
However, just as gritty Wyoming lawmakers refused to back down in the face of Roe, they are not backing down now. During the illegitimate reign of King Roe, they continued to do everything possible to protect babies. So also now, Martha Lawley (R-Worland) has introduced legislation that restores to women protections that the Court stripped away.
HB 117 Stop harm-empower women with informed notices is designed to codify the constitutional protections that Wyoming owes women within the constraints imposed by the Johnson court decision.
The Johnson decision unambiguously recognized that the state has a compelling interest in protecting women’s health. Lawley’s bill finds that “essential to the psychological and physical well-being of a woman” is that she receive complete and accurate information about the procedure, her rights, and her options.
Regarding the procedure, HB 117 cites U.S. Supreme Court rulings that explicitly require specific information to make “informed consent” complete. It then would codify these court requirements into state law. Specifically, a woman has the right to know:
· The name of her doctor.
· Whether her pregnancy is ectopic or molar.
· The gestational age of the child and its anatomical and physiological features.
· A description of the abortion procedure and an accurate assessment of its medical risks relative to birth.
· Whether she needs anti-Rh immune globulin therapy to prevent harm in future pregnancies.
· Alternative options that are available to address the needs that have brought her to the abortionist, in the first place.
If you believe that women rushed through abortion mills are told all these things already, you have been hoodwinked. Shoddy informed consent is endemic to the abortion industry.
Regarding a woman’s rights, informed consent includes not only her right to information, it also includes her right to choose freely and without external pressure. Studies show that nine out of 10 women who choose abortion do so not because she wants it, but because of someone else. Too often, that turns into coercion.
HB 117 cites the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons and a 2023 study by David C. Reardon, both of which demonstrate that, “Many women are coerced into having abortions.”
As survivors of domestic abuse can attest, coercion comes in many forms.
Physical harm, or the threat of physical harm, to mother or child is only the most obvious. Involuntary confinement and committing any unlawful act against her are also ways to coerce. Other forms include:
· Universities revoking scholarships.
· Employers that fire, demote or otherwise harass pregnant women.
· Agencies that deny social welfare based on a woman’s choice to have her baby.
· Landlords, boyfriends, or parents who evict or threaten eviction.
All of these weapons - and more - can be used to badger a woman to do what she does not want to do. So, all of these and more would be codified in state law as illegal forms of stripping a woman of her true and voluntary choice.
No one knows better than the woman herself when she is being coerced, misinformed, or gaslighted. That’s why the third part of HB 117 does not put her at the mercy of some county prosecutor.
All too often, Wyoming sees flagrant violations of law that go unprosecuted - or require enormous public pressure finally to force prosecutors to do their duty. (Just think about Weston County.)
A woman’s right to sue those who mistreat her was already enacted by the Life is a Human Right Act, which the Court struck down. HB 117 would restore that right. “Any interested party,” it says, “may bring a civil action against any person who performs an elective abortion,” without giving the woman fully informed and freely given consent.
HB 117 will be heard by the House Judiciary Committee on Monday morning. It is a law whose time has come. It is a law that the Supreme Court has pre-approved. And it is the protection of rights that every woman deserves.
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
