Governor signs ban on child gender transition care, vetoes abortion bill

CHEYENNE — Gov. Mark Gordon signed a bill on Friday to ban all child gender-affirming care in Wyoming and vetoed a bill that would restrict abortion access in the Cowboy State.

Senate File 99, “Children gender change prohibition,” bans physicians from performing any gender-affirming care or transition surgeries on a child under the age of 18 years old. This includes prescribing puberty suppression or hormone blocking drugs.

Any physician or pharmacy found in violation of this law may have their license revoked, suspended or delayed for renewal, according to the bill.

“I signed SF 99 because I support the protections this bill includes for children; however, it is my belief that the government is straying into the personal affairs of families,” Gordon said in a news release. “Our Legislature needs to sort out its intentions with regard to parental rights. While it inserts governmental prerogative in some places, it affirms parental rights in others.”

Gordon also vetoed House Bill 148, ”Regulation of Abortions,” which would have regulated Wyoming surgical abortion clinics.

An amendment added in the House of Representatives expanded the bill to apply to chemical abortions and required an ultrasound within 48 hours of a pregnant woman obtaining drugs or substances for a chemical abortion.

These amendments to the bill “complicated” its intention, Gordon noted in the release, making the legislation “vulnerable to legal challenges.”

The governor noted that Wyoming is already in the middle of a lawsuit against the state over laws that prohibit surgical and chemical abortions.

“With the judge certifying these cases to the Wyoming Supreme Court, the state is closer than ever to a decision on the constitutionality of abortion in Wyoming,” Gordon said. “It is my opinion that HB 148, as amended, had the potential to further delay the resolution of this critical issue for the unborn. The potential of starting over on a new course of legal arguments would, in my mind, be derelict, and would have only sacrificed additional unborn lives in Wyoming.”

Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, tried to remove the provision requiring ultrasounds on the Senate floor during the session.

“The intent of the 48 hours, based on my understanding, could be nothing but to create hardship for the woman that is seeking the abortion,” Rothfuss said, adding that it would mandate a “mandatory, forced, transvaginal ultrasound that would happen within the first 12 weeks.”

More than 500 abortions were performed in Wyoming in 2022, according to Gordon’s veto letter, and preliminary data from the Wyoming Department of Health predicted a “similar, if not higher trajectory” of abortions in 2023.

Gordon added he was disappointed in the several amendments that were added to the bill sponsored by Rep. Martha Lawley, R-Worland, during the session, which “misaligned it with laws” that are currently being defended by the state in court.

The ACLU of Wyoming issued a statement Friday in response to the governor’s veto of HB 148.

This story was published on March 23, 2024.