A judge may rule on Wyoming's abortion laws, including the first explicit US ban on abortion pills

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A judge in Wyoming will decide as soon as Thursday whether to strike down, affirm or hold a trial over the state's abortion bans, including its first-in-the-nation explicit prohibition on the use of medication to end pregnancy.

Any decision on the bans during or after a pretrial conference before Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens in Jackson likely would be appealed to the Wyoming Supreme Court. Both sides have asked Owens to issue a ruling without holding a bench trial that is scheduled to begin April 15.

So far, Owens has shown sympathy for arguments that the bans violate women's rights under the state constitution. Three times over the past year and a half, the judge has blocked the laws from taking effect while they were disputed in court.

One of the laws bans abortion except to protect to a pregnant woman’s life or in cases involving rape and incest. The other made Wyoming the only state to explicitly ban abortion pills, though other states have instituted de facto bans on the medication by broadly prohibiting abortion.