In the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion-rights advocates in Wyoming have been on the defensive.
After Roe’s fall, the Wyoming Legislature’s near-total “trigger” ban was set to go into effect, though it stalled in court. The very next year, it was replaced by another near-total ban and an additional prohibition on abortion-inducing medications. And in March, the statehouse passed a bill mandating ultrasounds for women seeking the procedure and effectively regulating facilities offering abortions out of business.
The bans are now on hold as the courts consider their constitutionality, and Gov. Mark Gordon vetoed the clinic-regulation and ultrasound bill. Given the rightward drift of the statehouse, however, Wyoming is likely to see more attempts at limiting — or eliminating — access to abortion here.
Amid that reality, abortion-rights advocates have set about building a new organization intended to push back against the wave of new restrictions. Wyoming United for Freedom seeks to defend against what its organizers view as aggressive anti-abortion legislation. It’s intended to act as a grassroots hub for abortion rights in Wyoming, supporting and amplifying work that’s already being done by existing groups here.
Wyoming United will serve as a “coalition building apparatus, able to unify the messaging of all folks doing this in Wyoming,” explained the group’s field communications director and first paid employee, Cheyenne resident Marci Kindred. Collaborators could include large existing organizations like Pro-Choice Wyoming and Chelsea’s Fund or even small-town book clubs that support abortion access.
“What we wanted was a place for all the folks that have been ignited since the Dobbs decision,” she said, referring to the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe. “People are like, ‘I want to do something, what can I do?’ And we needed a place that could give them things to do, whether that’s knocking on doors, whether that’s collecting stories to bring to the Legislature.”
Forming the group took time. It came together in December — more than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court revoked the constitutional right to abortion. Since then, Kindred said the nascent organization has raised more than $250,000 — almost all of it from Wyoming-based donors. In the month since she’s been hired, Kindred said they’ve also signed up about 1,000 volunteers.
The group intends to touch every corner of the state while also concentrating efforts in a few key areas, including Cody, Riverton, Lander, Casper, Cheyenne, Buffalo and Sheridan. People in those communities may be getting knocks at their doors, and seeing more ads and other visible efforts to promote abortion access ahead of — and after — the Aug. 20 primary election.
People gather in Cheyenne to protest the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade and with it the constitutional right to abortion. (Mike Vanata/WyoFile)
A collaborative effort
Wyoming United for Freedom was founded, in part, by people involved with Wyoming’s other abortion access organizations, explained Maggie Hunt, president of the new group.
“We started meeting exactly a year ago,” Hunt said. “A group of us from Pro-Choice Wyoming, from Chelsea’s Fund, [and] I used to be on the board of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains until last fall.”
Christine Lichtenfels, executive director of Chelsea’s Fund, an organization that works to help residents access abortion, is listed as director of the new outfit as well.
While there were lengthy discussions on how best to fight for access, the group agreed that something needed to be done, Hunt said.
“It’s not the government’s business to be in our doctor’s office, or interfering in women’s reproductive health and decisions,” she said. “We’re losing young people, we’re losing doctors.”
Still, Wyoming is one of the nation’s most politically conservative states, and many here advocate for restricting — or eliminating entirely — access to abortion. Among them is Marti Halverson, a former Republican lawmaker and executive director for the statewide anti-abortion group Wyoming Right to Life.
In contrast to Wyoming United for Freedom, Halverson’s group doesn’t fundraise for operations, she said.
Local chapters may raise money for billboards or events, Halverson added, but not at the state level. The last time Wyoming Right to Life solicited donations, she recalled, they garnered about $3,000 to help the organization’s efforts to intervene in the case over Wyoming’s two abortion bans.
Anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers raise money mainly through donations at annual banquets, Halverson said.
Longtime Star Valley resident Marti Halverson poses at her home in May 2023. (Mike KoshmrlWyoFile)
Sharing stories
At the Reproductive Rights Summit held in Lander last month, Kindred posted up behind one of a handful of tables for pro-choice organizations. The pro-access groups lined the seating areas stocked with information, swag and sign-up lists.
Kindred is a real estate agent by trade, but she’s decided to put that on the back burner, at least through the election, to focus on her work related to abortion access.
She remembers the first time she talked to her mom about abortion. She was around 9 years old.
“What is an abortion?” she recalls asking. “When somebody ends a pregnancy, why would they do that?”
Her mom noted there were many reasons a woman might want an abortion, including health concerns and not feeling that they’re ready to be a parent. She then asked her mom what their Mormon faith said.
“And she said that we believe in free agency and that we are not here to judge, and anybody’s choice is between them and God,” Kindred remembered. “Women have always had abortions, and if someone chooses to have an abortion, they should be able to do so safely.”
Many women have personal stories related to the subject. Kindred intends to collect them as part of her advocacy work with Wyoming United for Freedom.
Women from diverse ideological backgrounds spoke at the summit recounting raw stories of fatal fetal diagnoses, passing a fetus using abortion-inducing medications in a hotel room in Colorado, having a baby die inside the womb before birth, or being turned away for doctor-recommended treatment on religious grounds.
Sharing such personal abortion stories is key to her group’s strategy, Kindred said.
“We will be doing a story-telling campaign,” she said. “Not just canvassing, phone banking, organizing, we want to bring those voices to our elected officials, to our governing bodies. Amplify Wyoming stories.”
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