Johnson v. State of Wyoming I
Description: Abortion activists are challenging a Wyoming state law that seeks to preserve the lives of innocent, unborn babies and the health and safety of mothers.
Wyoming Right to Life, legislators to appeal to court to intervene in defense of state pro-life law
JACKSON, Wyo. – On behalf of two Wyoming legislators and Right to Life of Wyoming, Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a notice of appeal Thursday to the Wyoming Supreme Court after a lower court denied their motion to intervene in a lawsuit to defend a state law that protects unborn children.
In anticipation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, Wyoming enacted a law that seeks to preserve the lives of innocent, unborn babies and the health and safety of mothers. However, before the law could go into effect, abortion activists filed a lawsuit, Johnson v. State of Wyoming, challenging the law and prompting Wyoming Representatives Rachel Rodriguez-Williams and Chip Neiman, along with Right to Life of Wyoming, to ask the court for permission to intervene so they can provide arguments and evidence that there is no state constitutional right to an abortion and that abortion harms women and unborn children.
“The state of Wyoming is eager to protect life and uphold its law that seeks to preserve the lives of children and support mothers,” said ADF Senior Counsel Denise Harle, director of the ADF Center for Life. “Women deserve real health care, unborn babies deserve a chance to live, and states like Wyoming deserve the long-awaited opportunity to affirm that life is a human right. We urge the court to allow Right to Life of Wyoming and Reps. Rodriguez-Williams and Neiman to intervene in this lawsuit and help defend innocent, unborn lives.”
- Pronunciation guide: Harle (HAR'-lee)
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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ABOUT Denise Harle
Denise Harle serves as senior counsel on the Center for Life Team at Alliance Defending Freedom. Prior to joining ADF, Harle served as deputy solicitor general in the Office of the Florida Attorney General, where she drafted appellate briefs and presented oral arguments on behalf of the state in a wide variety of constitutional cases, including defending the constitutionality of pro-life laws. In 2017, she participated in the prestigious Supreme Court Fellow program, sponsored by the National Association of Attorneys General. She clerked for Justice Ricky L. Polston on the Florida Supreme Court and worked for several years as an appellate litigator at a large firm in California. Harle earned bachelor’s degrees, summa cum laude, in psychology and interdisciplinary social science from Florida State University, a master’s degree in political science from Stanford University, and a Juris Doctor from Duke University School of Law. At Duke, she served as the executive editor of Law & Contemporary Problems. A member of the state bars of California, Florida, and Georgia, she is admitted to multiple federal district and appellate courts, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court.