CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Abortion bans set to take effect this week in Wyoming and North Dakota have been temporarily blocked by judges in those states amid lawsuits arguing that the bans violate their state constitutions.

A judge in Wyoming on Wednesday sided with a firebombed women’s health clinic and others who argued the ban would harm health care workers and their patients, while a North Dakota judge sided with the state’s only abortion clinic, Red River Women’s Clinic in Fargo.

The Wyoming law was set to take effect Wednesday. The North Dakota law was set to take effect Thursday.

Meanwhile, West Virginia lawmakers moved ahead with a ban amid protests and dozens speaking against the measure.

During hours of debate leading up to the 69-23 vote in the Republican-dominated House of Delegates in West Virginia, the sound of screams and chants from protesters standing outside the chamber rang through the room.

“Face us,” the crowd yelled.

The latest court action in North Dakota and Wyoming put them among several states including Kentucky, Louisiana and Utah where judges have temporarily blocked implementation of “trigger laws” while lawsuits play out.

Attorneys arguing before Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens, in Jackson, Wyoming, disagreed over whether the state constitution provided a right to abortion that would nullify the state’s abortion “trigger” law that took effect Wednesday.

Owens proved most sympathetic, though, with arguments that the ban left pregnant patients with dangerous complications and their doctors in a difficult position as they balanced serious medical risks against the possibility of prosecution.

“That is a possible irreparable injury to the plaintiffs. They are left with no guidance,” Owens said.

Several states including Wyoming recently passed abortion “trigger” bans should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade, which happened June 24. The U.S. Supreme Court formally issued its judgment Tuesday.

After a more than three-week review, Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, last week gave the go-ahead for the Wyoming abortion ban he signed into law in March to take effect Wednesday but it is instead on hold after the ruling.

The Wyoming law would outlaw abortions except in cases of rape or incest or to protect the mother’s life or health, not including psychological conditions. Doctors and others who provide illegal abortions under Wyoming’s new law could get up to 14 years in prison.

The four Wyoming women and two nonprofits that sued Monday to contest the new law claim it violates several rights guaranteed by the state constitution. Wyoming Special Assistant Attorney General Jay Jerde was skeptical, saying the state constitution neither explicitly nor implicitly allowed abortion.

“No such right exists. You can’t infringe what isn’t there,” Jerde told Owens.

The lawsuit claims the abortion ban will harm the women — two obstetricians, a pregnant nurse and a University of Wyoming law student — by outlawing potentially life-saving treatment options for their patients or themselves.

Those suing include a nonprofit opening a Casper women’s and LGBTQ health clinic, Wellspring Health Access, that would have offered abortions. A May arson attack has set back the clinic’s opening from mid-June until at least the end of this year.

In North Dakota, Burleigh County District Judge Bruce Romanick sided with the state’s only abortion clinic that the state had moved fast to let the law take effect. The clinic had argued that a 30-day clock should not have started until the U.S. Supreme Court issued its certified judgment on Tuesday.

The ruling will give the Red River clinic more time to relocate a few miles away to Moorhead, Minnesota, where abortion remains legal. North Dakota’s law would make abortion illegal in the state except in cases of rape, incest and the life of the mother.

Meetra Mehdizadeh, attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is helping the clinic with the suit, said the plaintiffs “will do everything in our power to fight this ban and keep abortion accessible in North Dakota for as long as possible.”

In West Virginia, meanwhile, lawmakers on Wednesday debated a sweeping abortion ban bill on the House floor that would make providing the procedure a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The bill makes exceptions for rape or incest up to 14 weeks of gestation and for certain medical complications.

“What’s ringing in my ears is not the noise of the people here,” said one of the bill’s supporters, Republican Del. Brandon Steele of Raleigh County. “It’s the cries of the unborn, tens of thousands of unborn children that are dead today.”

The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration.

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said a 19th century law banned abortion in the state. Last week, a state judge barred the state from enforcing that ban, saying it was superseded by conflicting, newer laws.

Hundreds of people descended on the state Capitol for the debate. Many stood outside the House chamber and Speaker Roger Hanshaw’s office chanting and holding signs reading “we will not go quietly” and “stop stealing our health care.” Security officers escorted some from the House chambers.

Dozens spoke against the bill on the House floor including Katie Quiñonez, executive director of the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia, who was cut off and asked to step down as she started to talk about the abortion she got when she was 17.

“I chose life,” she said, raising her voice to speak over the interruption. “I chose my life, because my life is sacred.”

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FARGO, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota’s only abortion clinic is preparing for what could be its final day of performing procedures, with a trigger ban due to take effect Thursday that will likely force patients to travel hundreds of miles to receive care pending the clinic’s relocation across the border to Minnesota.

Barring a judge’s intervention, the Red River Women’s Clinic will provide abortion services Wednesday then shut down. Owner Tammi Kromenaker is building a new clinic in Moorhead, Minnesota, with the aid of nearly $1 million raised through GoFundMe.

Kromenaker has not said when the new clinic will open and she did not respond to messages Tuesday. Planned Parenthood has said it can perform abortions at its own Moorhead facility to fill the gap if needed, but it is not clear if that will happen.

Once North Dakota’s ban takes effect, the nearest abortion clinics will be in Minneapolis and Duluth, Minnesota, a drive of about four hours from Fargo, and in Billings, Montana, which is nearly four hours from North Dakota’s western border.

Destini Spaeth, the volunteer leader of an independent group that helps fund abortions in North Dakota, is investigating temporary solutions until the Moorhead clinic opens. That could include helping to pay for trips to Minnesota and Montana.

“To have to cross state lines and to be treated like and spoken about like a criminal in your home state and forced to travel elsewhere, pleading for care, desperate for care,” said Spaeth, spokeswoman for the North Dakota Women In Need fund. “It’s got to be just so traumatic.”

Kristi Wolff, executive director of the North Dakota Women’s Network, said the women’s advocacy group still refers people to the Red River Women’s Clinic or to a physician “if that’s what’s needed.” Wolff said she has fielded numerous calls from women showing “a lot of uncertainty and despair and anger” about what’s in store.

“If there is no clinic operating within North Dakota, women will have to travel farther,” Wolff said. “In order to do that, they have to have the resources for adequate transportation, you know, gas money, child care, time off work, they need all those things. To have to do that just get to health care, that’s unacceptable.”

The clinic is suing in state court to block the trigger law, which was passed years ago to take effect if the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Roe v. Wade precedent establishing a right to abortion. The lawsuit argues that a ban would be contrary to the state constitution. It also argues that Attorney General Drew Wrigley prematurely started the 30-day countdown for the law to take effect.

“I’m not holding my breath for an injunction,” Spaeth said. “I think we’re preparing for tomorrow to be the last clinic day in North Dakota for a while.”

The first abortion clinic in Fargo opened in 1981, in a two-story house that was more than 70 years old. It was the site of intense protests in the early 1990s sparked by a national group that locked themselves to cars, trees, street signs and other objects. The clinic moved to its current location in downtown Fargo in 1998.

While the move to Moorhead will add a couple of miles for patients from the Dakotas, it will also mean that the weekly group of anti-abortion protesters won’t be traveling much further. Some of them have called Wednesday’s planned Fargo finale bittersweet and said they will resume their posts when the new clinic opens.

McKenzie McCoy, executive director of North Dakota Right To Life, said she’s “overjoyed the clinic is closing” but isn’t blind to the fact that the clinic is reopening a few miles away.

“So we will continue to go across to Minnesota to love these women and show that, you know, we’re here for you, regardless of the decision, but that there really are other solutions,” she said.

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