CASPER, Wyo. — A modest building sandwiched between a gas station and a small apartment house near this Western city’s downtown has become an unexpected focal point of America’s abortion debate, just weeks before Wyoming could outlaw the procedure.
Inside, a nonprofit is renovating the space into a clinic that, beginning in June, would be the only one in Wyoming to provide procedural abortions. The Casper clinic also would become the closest option for people in what the nonprofit’s founders describe as an “abortion desert,” extending into western Nebraska and South Dakota.
Outside, on a recent Thursday, more than 100 abortion opponents gathered for a prayer vigil on the sidewalk along a busy five-lane street. A smaller group of vocal abortion rights advocates assembled nearby.
