CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — When organizers earlier this year settled on a summer opening for a new women’s health clinic in Wyoming, they felt upbeat about their plans even as they knew they would face opposition to what will be the only such clinic to offer abortions in the state.
There were the expected protests and harassing messages. Things got more tense after a leaked draft of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that, if finalized, would likely make abortions illegal in Wyoming and half of the states.
Then in late May, their building was damaged by a fire police believe was deliberately set.
None of it has derailed plans to open the clinic — a rarity in heavily Republican parts of the United States where most abortion providers at the moment are fighting just to stay in business, let alone expand services.
“We can’t be bullied into submission,” Julie Burkhart, the clinic founder, said as she watched from across the street as Casper police and firefighters investigated the blaze.
For years, Wyoming prided itself on live-and-let-live Western conservatism that took a hands-off approach to setting social policy in government, abortion included. That’s changing, however.
In March, Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, signed a bill that put Wyoming among the states that would outlaw abortion should the Supreme Court overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that made abortion legal nationwide. The only exceptions would be in the event of rape or incest, to save the mother’s life or to save the mother from severe, non-mental health problems.
Gordon, who’s running for re-election this year, hasn’t made abortion and other culture war issues a feature of his campaigns or time in office. But a recent rightward shift of both
the Supreme Court and state Legislature has elevated abortion into an issue in Wyoming.
The planned clinic stands in stark defiance of that trend.
Its backers include Riata Little Walker, a Casper resident who recently spoke out at a rally in support of the clinic. In an interview, Little Walker described herself as pro-life until two years ago, when fetal heart and chromosomal abnormalities doctors said would likely cause her to miscarry prompted her to get an abortion five months into her pregnancy.
Had she not been able to get an abortion at a hospital in Colorado, Little Walker said she may have had to face a traumatic miscarriage at home.
“Not all aborted babies are unwanted,” Little Walker said. “This needs to be available for people when they need it, even if they wanted their baby and they have to make the hardest decision that any parent could possibly make.”
Her opinion is probably not the majority view in Casper, a working-class city of 58,000 people that is Wyoming’s second-biggest after the capital, Cheyenne.
Known as the “Oil City,” Casper has a long history as a hub of oil drilling and cattle ranching, with more recent activity in uranium mining and wind energy. The city sprawls at the base of Casper Mountain with a skyline dominated by a 180-foot (54-meter) concrete spire built in the 1960s.
After the clinic fire, one minister and clinic supporter, the Rev. Leslie Kee of the local Unitarian Universalist church, called for tolerance by all.
“All this does is fan the flames of division and fear and helplessness and sense that things are spinning out of control,” Kee said. “Somebody’s got to step up and call for calm and love and peace. That comes from the human heart.”
No one was injured in the blaze, which left the stucco house being renovated for the clinic with broken windows and smoke damage. Authorities are investigating whether the fire is linked to a person seen running away from the building carrying what appeared to be a gas can and a bag.
After surveying the damage, Burkhart said she expects the previously planned mid-June opening to be delayed by “at least several weeks.”
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