The proposed legislation draws on lessons learned so far in the ongoing litigation challenging the constitutionality of last year’s abortion trigger ban, which went into effect briefly before being blocked by a state judge. For now, abortions remain legal in Wyoming.
On Friday, Driskill told reporters that he was still weighing whether or not to let the bill proceed, citing questions around the bill’s legality and constituents’ concerns about the proposed legislation’s elimination of rape and incest exemptions.
House Bill 152 includes a number of unusual characteristics that some lawmakers, including several who voted in favor of last year’s abortion trigger ban, have argued would infringe on separation-of-powers principles in the U.S. Constitution.
Its “findings and purposes” section, for example, makes interpretations of the Wyoming Constitution, a job that’s reserved for courts. And it would give the sponsor and cosponsors of the bill, by joint resolution, power to intervene in potential court cases challenging the legislation.