A Casper abortion clinic has become a hot spot for alleged harassment, verbal threats and intimidation. Just who’s doing the harassing and who’s the victim depends on whom you ask.
Casper City Council member Brandy Haskins said she recently got a phone call from an employee of the facility stating that people going to the Wellspring Health Access Clinic have reported being harassed and threatened when trying to enter the building.
The caller called on the council to protect patients.
Haskins said every patient who goes to Wellspring has to be escorted because of the protestors who congregate outside the building daily.
“She is now afraid and wanting to know if we can help,” Haskins said.
The harassment outside the clinic actually flow the opposite direction, said Casper resident Ross Schriftman, a pro-life advocate and president of Natrona County Right to Life and candidate for the Casper City Council.
In an email shared with Cowboy State Daily, he said the reports made to Haskins are defamation on the part of the clinic meant to shut down “prayerful and peaceful pro-life vigils and advocacy activities” outside the clinic.
“We must be vigilant and defend our rights and our efforts to provide life-affirming messages and help to women in crisis,” Schriftman said.
Schriftman and other pro-life activists plan to respond to the claims Tuesday and bring awareness to their demonstration at a Casper City Council meeting.
“Because we care about the moms and the babies,” he told Cowboy State Daily.
Harassment Or Not
Wellspring health officials did not respond to a request for comment.
Jane Ifland, a vocal pro-choice Casper resident and a former member of Wellspring’s now-dissolved advisory committee, said reports of patients being harassed by protesters congregating outside the clinic are true.
She said pro-life activists have attempted to hand out roses to people about to enter Wellspring to persuade them to not get an abortion, which she views as an act of harassment.
Schriftman confirmed to Cowboy State Daily they are giving roses and sees nothing wrong with it.
Ifland said it’s the job of the clinic’s escorts to protect and help patients as they enter the building, which she sees as a protected right under the Wyoming Constitution.
“The clinic escorts are protecting patients and securing access to the clinic,” she said. “When the clinic escorts get between the anti’s and our patients, what they are doing is protecting the patients, trying to screen them from the attacks of the anti’s, and give them a sense of safety going into the clinic.”
Wellspring, one of two active abortion clinics in Wyoming, opened in 2023 after its opening was delayed nearly a year because of an arson committed at the facility
Abortion is still fully legal in Wyoming while a 2023 law banning most forms of the practice in the Cowboy State is being challenged in court
Flows The Other Way
Schriftman said harassment is taking place at Wellspring, but it’s being directed at the pro-life activists, not patients entering the building. He said Wellspring escorts have screamed at and physically attacked people participating in pro-life vigils.
He also mentioned how earlier this year, a Wellspring escort pleaded no contest and paid a fine for assaulting a member of the pro-life protest group, a charge that Ifland confirmed is true, but only because the escort’s husband convinced her to not fight the case.
Schriftman told Cowboy State Daily the incident happened when one of the pro-life demonstrators handed a patient a flower, leading an escort to scream at protestors and throw the flower away while grabbing the patient.
He also said one member of his group was recently surrounded by escorts in an alley, who yelled “run her over,” and that a priest and his parishioners were yelled at by an escort who screamed, “God hates you.”
Other harassment, he said, has included members of his group getting spit at, having bottles thrown at them and getting exposed to male genitalia. One of his members was nearly pushed into a busy street during a prayer vigil, Schriftman said.
There are multiple groups that demonstrate outside Wellspring, including Sidewalk Advocates for Life and 40 Days For Life. Schriftman is a coordinator for 40 Days For Life’s Casper vigils.
All demonstrators, he said, have signed commitments to remain peaceful while on the premises, and most of their actions are limited to the holding of signs and handing out flowers to patients.
In 2023, Wellspring claimed that pro-lifers unlawfully confined one of their patients while she tried to enter the clinic, a report Casper Police were not able to verify but Ifland said was true.
Schriftman said demonstrators’ efforts have successfully resulted in dissuading numerous women forgo abortions at Wellspring.
Ifland said Wellspring has specifically instructed its employees to not engage with demonstrators. The most aggressive act that she said she’s seen the escorts take is blocking off protestors with rainbow-colored umbrellas. She believes the pro-life advocates are projecting onto the clinic staff what they are doing themselves.
Not Just Abortions
In addition to providing abortions, Wellspring also serves as a transgender treatment center and offers gynecological services.
Haskins also mentioned that with the recent death of Samuel Vigneri, a popular OBGYN doctor in Casper, there are fewer places for women to receive general reproductive health care.
Schriftman thought this was an inappropriate reference as he says Vigneri was a pro-life advocate. He said he has been told dozens of OBGYNs in Casper have come together to help Vigneri’s patients since his death.
What’s Next?
Haskins said she plans to meet with representatives from Wellspring to discuss the issues and may try and schedule a future council work session on the matter.
Other municipalities and states around the country have put in place restrictions on pro-life demonstrations near abortion clinics, but Casper has not done so.
Ifland wants Casper Police to defend Wellspring’s escorts and patients from people trying to prevent them from entering the building. Schriftman wants similar protections for the demonstrators.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
