Wyoming to become second state with no Planned Parenthood offices

Moscow, May 22, 2017

Photo: lifesitenews.com

In a victory for the pro-life movement, and all who value human life, the state of Wyoming will soon see the closure of its last remaining Planned Parenthood facility, in the city of Casper, on July 21. The location has been in business for 40 years, reports LifeSiteNews.

The Wyoming closing joins a number of others throughout Planned Parenthood’s Rocky Mountain region. New Mexico will lose three facilities, probably in September, and others will be closing in Colorado and southern Nevada. After July 21, Wyoming will be just the second state to have no Planned Parenthood offices, joining the state of North Dakota.

The closure is being attributed to a large-scale consolidation effort on the part of Planned Parenthood, aimed at maintaining solvency. The announcement comes just a few months after the abortion chain saw a wave of support in New Mexico, with a February event raising around $125,000—the largest Planned Parenthood benefit ever conducted in the state. Nevertheless, the donations were not enough to maintain all the region’s facilities.

The Casper facility served about 500 clients annually. Most Wyoming Planned Parenthood users actually frequent the Fort Collins, Colorado location. The Casper office did not perform abortions, but referred to patients to other facilities. Nevertheless, the business as a whole is built nearly entirely on abortions, and so the office’s closing still has a positive impact in the pro-life movement.

However, Rocky Mountain region spokeswoman Adrienne Mansanares stressed that Planned Parenthood would continue to participate in the Wyoming Abortion Fund, would continue to offer “sexual education resources.”

Interestingly, the fact that Casper has other facilities that offer “comprehensive reproductive health care” contributed to the decision to close the facility, Mansanares said. That numerous other facilities offer such care, making Planned Parenthood unnecessary, is often pointed out by pro-life advocates looking to close down Planned Parenthood.

Moreover, Wyoming governor Matt Mead signed the state’s first pro-life legislation in 28 years in March. One law signed mandates that abortionists “orally and in person inform the pregnant woman that she has a right to view an active ultrasound of the unborn child and hear the heartbeat of the unborn child if the heartbeat is audible.”

The second prohibits the sale, transfer, or distribution of “any tissue or cells from an aborted child” to be used in experimentation. Both laws go into effect on July 1.

Additionally, President Donald Trump signed a law last month that allows states to deny certain federal funding to Planned Parenthood. The measure overturns a regulation finalized at the end of the President Obama administration that explicitly stops states from denying federal Title X family planning funds to clinics, like Planned Parenthood, that also provide abortion services.