Fire, looming ruling don't force abortion clinic to shut down

CASPER, WYO. >> 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 last week, 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-andlet-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.

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.”