Associated Press
Disclaimer: This article may contain the personal views and opinions of the author.
The abortion debate has been a dividing issue in America for decades and has heated up even more over the last couple of years.
Last June, the Supreme Court “upheld a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.”
A majority of justices voted to “strike down Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), effectively ruling abortion is no longer a nationwide right and giving states the power to ban the procedure.
“[Justice] Alito called Roe v. Wade ‘an abuse of judicial authority’ that relied on ‘egregiously wrong’ reasoning and argued the right to abortion is not expressly mentioned in the Constitution and isn’t ‘deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition.’”
Four of five other conservative justices “joined Alito’s ruling, while Chief Justice John Roberts agreed to uphold Mississippi’s law but opposed fully overturning Roe v. Wade.”
The three liberal justices on the Supreme Court wrote a dissenting opinion claiming that American women “have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection.”
The right to abortion is not and has never been a constitutional right. You would think Supreme Court justices would not refer to it as such.
Since the court’s decision was released, the abortion issue is being debated in the states as it is now a state issue.
Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon signed a law on Friday prohibiting chemical forms of abortion from the time of a confirmed pregnancy using “conventional medical testing.”
The governor wrote in a letter to the Secretary of State, “I have acted without bias and after extensive prayer, to allow these bills to become law.”
Gordon espouses pro-life policies and said he signed the abortion pill ban because it “strengthens the protections for the unborn.”
According to the law, those who “prescribe, dispense, distribute, sell or use any drug for the purpose of procuring or performing an abortion will face up to six months in prison and a fine of up to $9,000.”
The law does not criminally prosecute women “upon whom a chemical abortion is performed or attempted.”
Under Wyoming’s newly passed law, so-called “morning-after” pills, a prescription contraceptive medication used after sex but before a pregnancy can be confirmed, will be exempted from the ban.
Two other exemptions to the law are applicable to any woman who needs the treatment to protect her “from an imminent peril that substantially endangers her life or health” and any treatment of a “natural miscarriage according to currently accepted medical guidelines”.
Chemical abortions involve a two-drug combination: mifepristone and misoprostol.
The New York Times reported last week that “a preliminary ruling by a Texas judge expected soon could order U.S. Food and Drug Administration to withdraw approval of mifepristone.”
The potential ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by a group of doctors who oppose abortion, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine.
The state of Wyoming also passed the “Life is a Human Right Act” effective on March 19. The law bans abortions under “almost all circumstances.”
