The Wyoming Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the state’s two abortion bans are unconstitutional, preserving a hotly contested right amid a push by legislators to end the practice in the Equality State.

In a 4-1 decision, the court agreed the bans conflict with a 2012 amendment to the Wyoming Constitution that protects individuals’ rights to make their own health-care decisions. That amendment, ironically, was enacted by voters after a push by conservatives in the same legislature that’s since made repeated attempts to curtail abortion.

“A woman has a fundamental right to make her own health-care decisions, including the decision to have an abortion,” the ruling states.

“The State did not meet its burden of demonstrating the Abortion Laws further the compelling interest of protecting unborn life without unduly infringing upon the woman’s fundamental right to make her own health care decisions. As such, the Abortion Laws do not constitute reasonable and necessary restrictions on a pregnant woman’s right to make her own health care decisions.”

The ruling represents a victory for abortion rights advocates in one of the nation’s reddest states. They contend abortion bans conflict with the state’s long history of skepticism toward government involvement in medical and other personal decisions.

“This ruling is a victory for the fundamental right of people across Wyoming to make decisions about their own lives and health,” Julie Burkhart, president of Wyoming’s only facility that provides abortions, Wellspring Health Access in Casper, said in a statement. “Our clinic will remain open and ready to provide compassionate reproductive health care, including abortion, and our patients in Wyoming will be able to obtain this care without having to travel out of state.”

For abortion opponents, the decision is a bitter setback that indicates an abortion ban would require changes to the Wyoming Constitution—a more difficult hurdle than a simple majority vote in the Republican-dominated statehouse.

Even so, Gov. Mark Gordon immediately called on the Wyoming legislature to set a constitutional amendment into motion during the upcoming budget session, which begins next month.

“It is time for this issue to go before the people for a vote, and I believe it should go before them this fall. A constitutional amendment taken to the people of Wyoming would trump any and all judicial decisions,” Gordon said in a Tuesday statement lamenting the........

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