Pro-Life Advocates Protest Possible New Abortion Biz in Wyoming to Close it Before it Ever Opens

State   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Apr 22, 2022   |   12:07PM   |   Casper, Wyoming

News of a new abortion facility opening in Casper, Wyoming already is spurring prayers and protests in the local community.

On Thursday, about 150 pro-life advocates gathered for a peaceful protest at the site of the new abortion facility, sending the message that unborn babies are valuable, the Cowboy State Daily reports.

“We are for standing for human life, from natural conception to natural death,” said Bob Brechtel, a former state lawmaker who attended the event.

Holding signs that read “Remember the unborn” and “Life, the first inalienable right,” the pro-life crowd told the abortion business that it is not welcome in their community and unborn babies deserve a right to life.

Wyoming has one abortion facility, but the Washington, D.C.-based abortion group Circle of Hope Health Care Services plans to open a second one in Casper this summer, according to the report.

Mike Pyatt, with Liberty Place 4 U, told K2 Radio that local pro-life advocates will continue to pray and peacefully protest until the abortion facility closes just as they did before a Planned Parenthood shut down in 2017.

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Local pro-life leaders with Right to Life of Wyoming are making plans to hold regular protests outside the abortion facility. Sheila Leach, president of the organization’s Park County chapter, said they will be there to pray and reach out to families in need.

“The purpose is to pray for the babies, the mother and the father and for the staff at the clinic,” Leach told the local news. “And it’s always peaceful.”

A few pro-abortion activists associated with the new facility also showed up at the protest, including Jane Ifland, according to K2 Radio.

Ifland described abortion as a “core American value,” saying, “I’m here because it’s really important to me to make it clear if you can’t control your own body, you can’t really call yourself a free person.”

“I think it’s the core of American values, the individual personal liberty,” she continued. “… Nothing about an abortion affects the community. It affects the individual person.”

But pro-life advocates said out-of-state abortion activists are trying to push their radical ideology on Wyoming. The group opening the new abortion facility is based in Washington, D.C., and its leader, Julie Burkhart, is based in Colorado, according to Cowboy State Daily.

“We’re just concerned citizens, especially someone from out of state, pushing their ideology on Wyoming,” pro-life advocate John Brodrecht told the local news. “We’ll see more of this, and I think it’s very obvious, we’re not out here to raise hell, we’re out here to peacefully pray that no murders will happen, whether it be you or me or an unborn baby. That’s exactly what we are.”

Wyoming is a pro-life state. This spring, the state legislature passed a trigger law to protect unborn babies by immediately banning abortions once Roe v. Wade is overturned.

The state reported 91 abortions in 2020, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute.

Currently, because of Roe, states are forced to legalize abortions up to viability. However, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering a Mississippi case that challenges that precedent, and a ruling is expected this summer.