Gillette-based attorney Steve Titus is so sick of reading about local governments debating and denying grants to Gillette Reproductive Health, not everything he said about it is safe to print.
Titus on Thursday announced he’s sending a $25,000 donation to Gillette Reproductive Health.
That’s the amount the nonprofit group requested this year from the Campbell County Commission, to be used for wellness exams for uninsured and underinsured women in the community.
Three of the five commissioners in an informal vote May 19 opted to purge the grant to the group from the county’s draft budget.
The county is holding a budget hearing June 15, and won’t adopt a final budget until June 17, says the denial letter a county official sent Thursday to Gillette Reproductive Health Executive Director Taylor Ortega on the commission’s behalf.
“I’m so sick and tired of the ass-backwards bullshit in the Commissioners’ office,” wrote Titus in a Thursday Facebook post.
He attached an image of an even more sharply worded letter to Gillette Reproductive Health, with a $25,000 check placed slantwise across it.
“I am COMPLETELY tired of hearing year after year that Reproductive Health must beg for scraps from the dumb, short-sided (sic) f***s that run the Campbell County Board of Commissioners,” says Titus’ letter. “Preventative health care is one of the smartest investments a community can make, and refusing to fund it is both shortsighted and irresponsible.”
Titus’ indignation spilled into a Friday phone interview with Cowboy State Daily.
“I think maybe the County Commission would be more apt to support it if they (GRH) provided Viagra and penis enlargement pills,” he said.
“The people that run that organization have better things to do than beg for $25,000 from our ungrateful County Commission, so I thought it’d be easier (to donate) so they can get to their work instead of begging five men for pennies,” Titus said.
“Don’t get me wrong, $25,000 is a lot of money, but in the scheme of our county budget, it’s an accounting error,” he added. "It’s fractional. It’s nothing.”
The Why, Over The Years
Gillette Reproductive Health has made local headlines since at least 2020, when questions and controversies around whether the clinic provides abortion services or referrals surfaced.
At that time, commissioners declined the clinic’s $35,000 funding request.
The controversy has recurred over the years.
It erupted again in 2025, this time on the Gillette City Council side, when the mayor said he had found a link to Power to Decide — which in turn provided links to abortion clinic connection sites like AbortionFinder — on GRH’s website.
Then-entity Director Julie Price Carroll told the Gillette News Record at the time that she’d been unaware that Power to Decide had contained links to services such as AbortionFinder.
Ortega in a Friday phone interview said the clinic isn’t involved with abortions.
“We have never done anything with abortion care, and we will not be doing anything with abortion care moving forward,” said Ortega.
Regarding Titus’ donation, Ortega laughed and said the attorney “surely caused a little ripple for us didn’t he?” adding that, “We are so grateful.”
Still, she said she hopes the county and city will still provide the optional 1% tax grant funding, since it’s a more consistent revenue than private donations.
Another controversy that has dogged the clinic over the years, said Ortega, is that it provides Plan B contraceptives, an emergency pill that works by delaying ovulation to prevent pregnancy.
“Plan B is not an abortion pill,” said Ortega. “You can purchase Plan B from your local grocery store. It does nothing once a woman is pregnant.”
These Concerns Specifically
Campbell County Commissioners Scott Clem and Jim Ford told Cowboy State Daily that in the informal straw vote, they both signaled favor toward funding the clinic, while the other three commissioners voted to deny the money.
Those other three are Commission Chair Bob Jordan and Commissioners Kelley McCreery and Jerry Means.
McCreery told Cowboy State Daily he keeps hearing that the clinic provides birth control to minors without notifying their parents, and sexually transmitted infection treatment to minors without notifying their parents.
He doesn’t believe government money should be fueling those efforts, since they involve parental autonomy, said McCreery.
“There’s just enough stuff I don’t know about that I’m having reservations on giving taxpayer money to fund them,” he said.
McCreery said he doesn’t see any evidence the clinic is providing abortions, and heard from a woman who received services there when she was 17 and pregnant that the clinic didn’t try to coerce her into having an abortion.
“Of course, that’s just one person, but to me that gives them some pretty good credibility (on the abortion front),” said McCreery, who emphasized that he is pro-life.
As for Plan B, McCreery said he hadn’t heard of that claim and that didn’t factor into his thinking at all.
“I’m surprised he talks the way he does,” said McCreery of Titus.
Wyoming law allows minors to consent to receive sexually transmitted infection treatment.
It is silent as to whether minors can obtain birth control unilaterally, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Jordan and Means did not immediately return Thursday morning text and voicemail requests for comment.
That Little Comment
Ford categorized grants for GRH as a discretionary, not vital, use of public money.
No funding shortfall worries factored into this budget decision, he said.
Though he’d cast his informal aye in the clinic’s favor, Ford emphasized that, “Like most things that matter … it’s not quite as simple as folks want to make it on social media.”
Whether to give grant money to the clinic has been a controversial topic for years.
Last year, the commission urged GRH to raise $40,000 from other sources to unlock the grant money.
The clinic answered the commission’s call to raise more money and received a grant last year, Ford recalled.
He also said that the money is “reimbursable,” meaning given on a pay-as-you-go structure rather than a one-time grant.
The county, city, and local appointee-occupied Community, Advocacy, Resources, Education (CARE) Board had recommended the county fund the grant.
At a May 19 work session, “kind of at the last moment,” three commissioners said they didn’t want to fund GRH, said Ford.
He and Clem said they wanted to fund the clinic.
Ford laughed aloud at a question about Titus’ approach to the issue.
“I think it’s great to have people who are passionate about funding causes that are important to them, and to have public support, you know, for all these social service agencies, for every charity, for all these things,” Ford said.
“I guess I would say his one comment, about the commissioners, maybe shouldn’t be (referencing) all the commissioners,” he added.
He said he hopes more people will give to causes that matter, “not out of spite or protest, but maybe out of a consistent and sincere desire to support a cause.”
Not Substantiated
Clem also harkened to the past claims and concerns of the clinic providing abortion referrals or services, adding, “I don’t think any of that is really substantiated.”
Both he and Ford said there was no discussion on the merits of the decision when the informal vote unfolded May 19.
Clem said he hadn’t heard of the clinic treating minors, but noted that for STIs at least, state law specifically calls for that.
“I think it’s proper for our local government to help fund that social safety net, and I consider that this is part of that,” said Clem.
It’s also a smart decision, he added.
People without insurance and without meaningful access to preventative care, he said, could exacerbate their medical problems and end up in the emergency room — where their inability to pay impacts everyone else on a much larger scale.
“I do think it’s money that’s well spent, and I think the concerns raised in the past are pretty well put to bed,” said Clem.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
