Hannah Shields
Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

CHEYENNE – Gov. Mark Gordon vetoed a bill last year that would require surgical abortion centers to be licensed as an ambulatory surgical center.

An identical bill is headed back to the governor’s desk this year after the House of Representatives voted to concur with the Senate on House Bill 42, “Regulation of surgical abortions.”

On Monday, representatives passed HB 42 on a concurrence vote of 55-6, with one member excused. Five of Wyoming’s six House Democrats and Cheyenne Republican Rep. Bob Nicholas voted against the bill. Fort Washakie Democrat Rep. Ivan Posey voted in favor of it.

Last year’s bill, HB 148, “Regulation of abortions,” was amended in the House to also apply to chemical abortions, and require an ultrasound no more than 48 hours before a pregnant woman takes drugs or substances to induce abortion. Gordon said in his veto message these amendments to the bill “complicated” its intention, making it “vulnerable to legal challenges.”

Two separate bills this year address surgical abortion centers and require an ultrasound before taking abortion pills. 

Although both bills crossed over to the Senate and were passed by the Senate Labor, Health and Social Services Committee at the same time, only one of them has passed all the way through the Legislature at this point.

HB 64, “Chemical abortions-ultrasound requirement,” which is in its third and final reading in the Senate, was delayed for discussion a second time on Monday.

 

A ‘burdensome’ bill

Both of the Senate’s Democratic lawmakers and a handful of Republican colleagues questioned the necessity of the bill during its first reading on the Senate floor last week. 

Sens. Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, and Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, said abortion is the only type of surgical health care that’s been targeted by state lawmakers.

“The only surgeries that we mention in the green books are abortion,” Rothfuss said. “Every other surgery we actually leave up to the medical board.”

Gierau pointed to the state’s difficulty in keeping and recruiting health care providers. The Cowboy State faces a growing maternity services crisis, as hospitals shut down OB-GYN services in order to stay afloat. 

Anti-abortion laws, such as HB 42, are the only legislation that can turn doctors into felons, he said.

“At some point, we need to say we really don’t want doctors here, because if we keep doing bills that turn them into felons, that is the result,” Gierau said. “We should stop messing around with it.”

Sen. Evie Brennan, R-Cheyenne, responded that the discrimination issue is actually reversed in the bill, since physicians who perform surgical abortions are not currently required to be in good standing with the state or have hospital admitting privileges.

“Madam Chairwoman, those are things that we require of all other types of major surgeries and even minor surgeries within the state,” Brennan said to Sen. Wendy Schuler, R-Evanston, who was presiding over the Senate at the time.

Katherine Knutter, the executive director of Wyoming’s sole surgical abortion center, Wellspring Health Access in Casper, previously testified that her physicians don’t admit enough patients to the hospital to get hospital admitting privileges.

“(That’s) because abortion is very, very safe,” Knutter said during a House committee’s discussion of the bill.

Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper, echoed his Democratic colleagues’ concerns. Landen said he failed to see the justification behind legislation penalizing doctors, especially as the Cowboy State faces a shortage in health care providers.

“I don’t think that we’re giving enough thought to what we’re doing to our medical community out there,” Landen said. “What we’re doing here is making them think twice or three times before they come back, and they sure as heck aren’t going to be in women’s health, I’ll tell you.”

 

Potential shutdown

Knutter previously told both House and Senate committee members the passage of this bill could mean shutting down Wellspring Health Access. The bill would require the clinic to undergo extensive construction in order to comply as an outpatient surgical center, in addition to the “major barrier” of getting hospital admitting privileges for her physicians. 

“We feel that this is specifically targeted to put us out of business,” Knutter previously told House committee members.

Senators in favor of the bill during its first reading on the floor said it was about protecting the health and safety of pregnant women. 

Sen. Lynn Hutchings, R-Cheyenne, denied that the bill was meant to restrict abortion access for women. 

“If we’re going to have legal abortions, we’re going to try to make them as safe as possible,” Hutchings said. “The bill is pretty clear cut. Nobody is trying to prevent anybody’s reproductive rights from being denied.”

Rothfuss, however, didn’t buy that argument. 

“It would be refreshing to just hear, perhaps, an admittance that this has nothing to do with women’s health. … The bill is not about that,” Rothfuss said. “The intent is to make it harder to have abortions.”