The national social media influencer Libs of TikTok blasted a Laramie High School counselor Thursday for saying he wishes Wyoming House Speaker Chip Neiman “had been aborted.”
Jason Uitterdyk’s Facebook page commented on a Wednesday post by the Wyoming Freedom Caucus that featured a video of Neiman, R-Hulett, advocating this session for the Human Heartbeat Act.
That’s the latest of four years’ worth of Wyoming abortion bans, all of which have been blocked in court.
“Ladies and gentlemen I will say this today,” said Neiman in the video. “I would have fought for you too … At what point did you become human? At what point would you have been glad to have somebody fight for you?”
Under the post, Cowboy State Daily has confirmed, Uitterdyk’s Facebook page wrote, “I wish this guy would have been aborted.”
Libs of TikTok blasted the screenshot of the comment and of Uitterdyk’s profile photo to their audience of 4.7 million. As of Thursday afternoon, nearly 100,000 people had viewed her X.com post.
The influencer also included a phone number for Uitterdyk’s employer, Laramie High School.
“Would you want this person in charge of your kids’ mental health?” she wrote.
No Response
Uitterdyk did not respond by publication to a Thursday-morning voicemail and text message.
Laramie High School administration did not return a voicemail. Albany County School District No. 1 declined via its communications coordinator Madison Green to comment.
Neiman told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday morning that he was not aware of the Libs of TikTok post or Uitterdyk’s comment.
Reacting to the outlet’s recitation of the comment, Neiman said, “I would never wish that on him. I’d fight for him and am fighting for him.”
Neiman said the comment is "horrific" and undermines the pro-choice argument, which Neiman called the “anti-life” position.
“I feel for the guy, I really do,” he said. “I feel awful for somebody that would have that attitude.”
Local Control
Neiman said matters around Uitterdyk’s employment are “a local control issue” for the school district.
The school district's website and Uitterdyk's Facebook page say he is a counselor at Laramie High Shcool.
Abortion is a fraught topic in Wyoming.
Led by the Legislature, the voters passed a health-care autonomy clause into the Wyoming Constitution in 2012. Rhetoric around the amendment cast it as a way to combat the Affordable Care Act.
The Wyoming Supreme Court ruled Jan. 6 that the clause also makes abortion access a right protected by the highest level of judicial scrutiny in constitutional law.
The court struck down Wyoming’s abortion bans.
Neiman sponsored another ban, the Human Heartbeat Act, banning abortion from the point at which a fetal heartbeat can be heard.
Consistent with history, a pro-choice coalition challenged the law.
A Natrona County District Court judge paused it while the litigation unfolded. It’s still ongoing.
This law has a trigger component, however, so that when it was blocked by a court a post-viability abortion ban sprang into law.
Gov. Mark Gordon urged the Legislature this year to advance a new amendment to the voters to allow abortion bans through the state Constitution. The Legislature did not do that.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
