House Bill 152, titled “Life is a Human Right Act,” is an unusually powerful piece of legislation. For starters, it boasts almost half the Senate and over a third of the House among its 36 co-sponsors. But that is only the beginning of what sets it apart.
The “Life is a Human Right Act” would create a section of Wyoming Statute titled “findings and purpose.” Sections like this are used to instruct both the executive and judicial branches concerning the rationale behind a given law. In this case, they codify the Wyoming Constitution’s provision: “In their inherent right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, all members of the human race are equal” (Article 1, Section 2 Equality of All).
Experience teaches that this “legislative finding” is sorely needed in Wyoming law concerning the unborn. All too often, we have seen policymakers fail to defend the unique wording of our constitution. Instead, they have relied solely on the ambiguities of “personhood theory,” which the Roe court introduced to muddy the waters, as if there could be a difference between a fetus and a person.
The Roe court admitted that if “the fetus is a ‘person’ within the language and meaning of the 14th Amendment ... the fetus’ right to life is then guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.” But the Wyoming Constitution did not rely on “personhood theory” to parcel out human rights to some while withholding them from others.
Rather, it guarantees the inherent rights of “all members of the human race.” Therefore, “The legislature finds that ... [a]s a consequence of an unborn baby being a member of the species homo sapiens from conception, the unborn baby is a member of the human race under article 1, section 2 of the Wyoming Constitution.”
In this way, the Legislature would take up its duty “as a coequal branch of government.” It is not only the judicial branch that has a constitutional duty to speak to the constitutionality of laws. All three branches retain that right and duty. And Wyoming’s legislative branch is poised to call out — as unconstitutional — any branch of government that would deny “that all members of the human race are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, the foremost of which is the right to life.”
This equal and unalienable right to life also “guarantees that citizens shall be [treated] without distinction of race, color, sex or any circumstance or condition whatsoever” (Constitution Art. 1, Sec. 3). Neither age, gestational development, viability nor being physically located inside or outside of the womb can be used to deny the right to equal protection under law.
Equal protection rights include due process, as made explicit in Article 1, Section 6 of the Constitution: “No person may be deprived of life or liberty without due process of law.” Most emphatically, Wyoming’s constitution applies to every member of the human race when it says, “Absolute and arbitrary power over the lives, liberty and property of freemen exists nowhere in a republic, not even in the largest majority” (Art. 1, Sec. 7).
Since both born and unborn require equal protection under law, the state must take into account the rights of both patients when considering the health care of pregnant women and their unborn children. The Constitution’s guarantee that Wyoming citizens are free to make their own health care decisions (Art. 1, Sec. 38) is misapplied if decisions for the health care of the child are overlooked.
The “Life as a Human Right Act” rightly concludes that “abortion, as defined in this act, is not health care.” Therefore, “It is within the authority of the state of Wyoming to determine reasonable and necessary restrictions upon abortion, including its prohibition.” This is entirely consonant with the health care freedom guaranteed in the Wyoming Constitution, Art. 1, Sec. 38.
In sum, “Wyoming’s ‘legitimate interests include respect for and preservation of prenatal life at all stages of development; the protection of maternal health and safety; the elimination of particularly gruesome or barbaric medical procedures; the preservation of the integrity of the medical profession; the mitigation of fetal pain; and the prevention of discrimination on the basis of race, sex, or disability’” (HB 152 findings and purposes, part x).
Tomorrow, just ahead of Sunday’s 50th anniversary of Roe, hundreds of Wyoming citizens will march to the steps of the Capitol to encourage the Legislature to adopt the “Life as a Human Right Act.” It is high time that the fundamental rights guaranteed by Wyoming’s constitution be reasserted and recognized by all branches of our state government.
Jonathan Lange is a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod pastor in Evanston and Kemmerer and serves the Wyoming Pastors Network. Follow his blog at OnlyHuman-JL.blogspot.com. Email: JLange64@allwest.net.
