CASPER, Wyoming (LifeSiteNews) — The last abortion facility in Wyoming could close, at least temporarily, due to a bill making its way through the legislature.
House Bill 0148, which would regulate abortion facilities as “an ambulatory surgical center,” passed the Wyoming House of Representatives yesterday and now must pass the state senate.
According to Julie Burkhart, the founder of Wellspring Health Access and a former associate of notorious late-term abortionist George Tiller, the legislation would close the Casper, Wyoming, clinic.
“I firmly believe we would have to close down for some amount of time,” Burkhart told Wyoming Public Radio.
The Gillette News Record reported that the “bill would require surgical abortion facilities and physicians who perform abortions within the state to be licensed, and would create a criminal penalty of $1,000 for any violation”
“HB 148 would also create civil liability for damages resulting from abortions, and reporting requirements to the state from facilities.”
Legislation to ban nearly all abortions in the state is still pending a state judicial decision. The Life is a Human Right Act “bans all chemical or surgical abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or allegedly to save the life of the mother,” as previously reported by LifeSiteNews.
While the law allows abortion exceptions, pro-lifers acknowledge that all preborn babies deserve protection from abortion. Human rights are not determined by the circumstances of conception. Furthermore, medical experts have confirmed that direct abortion is never medically necessary.
READ: Canadian abortion activists fail in their attempts to discredit pro-life pregnancy centers
Hundreds of babies would be saved from abortion if the state’s ban is enforced.
“In 2022, there were 127 abortions (64 percent) performed on Wyoming residents and 72 abortions (36 percent) performed on women from out-of-state,” according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
Of those 199 abortions, 198 were committed prior to 10 weeks gestation, the pro-life think tank reported.
Julie Burkhart has made her pro-abortion views known previously. “Abortion access is a life-or-death issue for women,” she said in 2014. Burkhart also claimed that killing babies in the womb is about being a mom.
“Abortion is about motherhood,” she told Mother Jones in 2013.
There is one other abortionist who provides dangerous chemical abortion drugs in the state, reported Wyoming Public Radio . The state ban on abortion drugs is also pending.