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It was the most unlikely response to the widely expected overturning of Roe v. Wade. In the summer of 2021, a small group of about 12 individuals, including some health care workers, elected officials, and local community activists, in the deep-red state of Wyoming—which didn’t have a single abortion clinic at the time—began planning to open a new clinic in the college town of Casper. This was at the same time that most abortion clinics in red states, seeing the writing on the wall, had begun planning to close or move to a more hospitable location. But not in Wyoming.

And this long-shot gamble paid off. Wellspring Health Access, which provides abortions as well as other services including family planning, general gynecology, and gender affirming care, opened its doors in spring 2023, almost a year after the Supreme Court decided Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Since then, the clinic has faced unending legal challenges from the state. However, at each turn, the clinic has prevailed, culminating in a big win before the Wyoming Supreme Court last week. This ruling, which may have significance for abortion rights beyond Wyoming, struck down the state’s general abortion ban as well as a specific ban on mifepristone, one of the two drugs used in a medication abortion.

How did this implausible turn of events come to pass? Beyond the determination of the community group in Casper, two main factors explain the ultimate success of this venture: Wyoming’s unique libertarian constitution and the savvy and determination of a woman named Julie Burkhart. In a wonderful instance of karma, the famously libertarian citizens of Wyoming, enraged by the passage of the Affordable Care Act, aka “Obamacare,” in 2010, amended their constitution, stipulating that individuals........

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