(Reuters) - A Wyoming judge on Thursday temporarily blocked a law banning medication abortion in the Western state, delaying what could be the nation's first such ban while a lawsuit challenging it makes its way through the courts, the Casper Star Tribune reported.
Wyoming's ban, one of numerous abortion restrictions passed by Republican lawmakers in U.S. states in the year since the Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to an abortion by overturning the 50-year-old Roe vs. Wade decision, was set to go into effect July 1.
It was challenged by medical providers and others, who said that the measure would force women to have surgical abortions even though such procedures are more invasive, the newspaper reported.
"Essentially the government under this law is making the decision for a woman rather than the woman making her own health care choice," Ninth District Court Judge Melissa Owens said, according to the newspaper.
Medication abortion, also called medical abortion, involves taking two drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol, to end a pregnancy.