- Wyoming became the first state to ban abortion pills after a bill became law on Friday.
- The "Life is a Human Right Act" makes prescribing or selling abortion pills a felony.
- Gov. Mark Gordon said he "acted without bias and after extensive prayer" in allowing the bill to pass.
Amid an ongoing battle against abortion-inducing medication taking place across the country, Wyoming has become the first state to ban abortion medication after the "Life is a Human Right Act" became state law on Friday night.
Governor Mark Gordon refused to veto the bill, which prompted the ban to automatically become law after it sat unsigned for three days without being returned to the state legislature for review.
Under the "Life is a Human Right Act," which modifies an existing abortion ban in the state, prescribing or selling abortion medications — including mifepristone and misoprostol — is a felony punishable by 5 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $20,000.
The bill "will become law without my signature as it seems to be the will of the legislature," Gordon said in a Friday letter to Chuck Gray, Wyoming's Secretary of State. However, he added, "I believe now more than ever that if the legislature seeks final resolution on this important issue, it ultimately may have to come through a constitutional amendment."
On Friday, Gordon signed into law the "Prohibiting chemical abortions" bill, which makes the manufacturing, distribution, and sale of chemical abortion drugs a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months imprisonment and a fine of up to $9,0000. It is unclear if any abortion medication is currently manufactured in Wyoming.
"I have acted without bias and after extensive prayer, to allow these bills to become law," Gordon's letter to Gray added, citing his pro-life voting record.
Wyoming was the first territory in the United States to grant women the right to vote, according to the National Parks Service, after passing a law offering women suffrage in 1869 — before the region even achieved statehood. It now becomes the first state to ban abortion-inducing medications as legal battles play out in Texas and beyond over similar proposed bans elsewhere.
Representatives for Gordon, Gray, and Representative Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, who sponsored the "Life is a Human Right Act," did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.