Alison Girone
CV NEWS FEED // A group of Wyoming pro-life advocates, who had been praying and offering pro-life alternatives outside of a local abortion facility, recently contended at their local city council that they, not the clinic escorts and patients, are the ones who experienced harassment.
At least 18 pro-lifers shared at the Casper City Council on October 15 about the situation related to the Wellsprings Health Access Clinic, which performs abortions, according to Oil City News.
According to Cowboy State Daily, Casper City Councilor Brandy Haskins had said at a Council meeting the week before that a Wellsprings employee and patients had called her and attested that people entering the clinic had reportedly experienced harassment and threats from the pro-life advocates. Haskins suggested the council might need to talk about the situation at a later meeting.
At the October 15 meeting, which the city of Casper published a video of on YouTube, Natrona County Right to Life President Ross Schriftman said that it is true that there is harassment at the abortion facility, “but it’s not the kind that is being portrayed by abortion supporters.” The advocates claimed that escorts and other people have ridiculed them, blared music over them as they prayed, yelled and spat at them, and in some instances, physically assaulted or threatened them.
One pro-life advocate said that a Wellsprings clinic escort “had charged at them in a vehicle,” Oil City News reported. The advocates also shared that police involvement had occurred in multiple instances, and charges were filed at least once.
Oil City News reported that Haskins said during the October 15 meeting that she had advocated not for the abortion facility, but for those who “said they were harassed and threatened” and said she “would have done the same” if the calls had come from the pro-lifers.
In the YouTube video, one of the pro-life advocates, a retired Catholic deacon, said that he and his wife pray the Rosary in silence outside the clinic every Friday.
Deacon Dave Johnson said he has experienced harassment and that the pro-life advocates “are going to be hurt one day if something is not done by this Council to prevent such atrocities.”
“We’ve come here to ask you just to remember that the Constitution allows for all of us — everybody, including the people who stand on the opposite side, have a right to express themselves,” Deacon Johnson said. “But they need to be able to have that right to do it in a peaceful manner, and it is your responsibility as members of this community and leaders to ensure that right.”
According to Oil City News, Councilor Kyle Gamroth said in response to the pro-life advocates’ input, “I’m sorry to hear about the multitude of negative interactions you folks have had practicing your First Amendment rights. I, and I’m certain all of my colleagues, do not condone any acts of violence.”
Oil City News reported that the council expressed interest in learning more from legal personnel about an idea Councilor Amber Pollock posed. She indicated that the council may be able to consider pursuing a “buffer zone” outside the clinic as an option moving forward, although she noted that some have expressed concern that such a zone would violate First Amendment rights.
The United Kingdom has implemented buffer zones around abortion facilities, sparking pushback for making silent prayer in certain public spaces a criminal act. Just this month, a UK man was convicted of violating a “safe zone” because he prayed in silence for his aborted son outside an abortion facility.
