Several American media outlets reported that a student who set fire to the only abortion clinic in Wyoming, a western US state, was sentenced to five years in prison on Thursday.
Lorna Roxanne Green, 22, admitted breaking into the Wellspring Health Access clinic in Casper in May 2022 and spilling gasoline there. The inauguration of the clinic was planned a few weeks later.
According to court documents obtained by local newspaper Oil City News, she told police that she “did not like having an abortion and had nightmares, which she attributed to her fear of the abortion clinic opening.”
“She then decided to burn the building down,” the documents say.
The clinic’s opening was delayed by several weeks due to the damage, making access to abortions in Wyoming even more difficult.
Abortion remains legal in this conservative state, but since the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision to strip away constitutional protections for abortion, Republican elected officials have sought to restrict it.
In the following months, many conservative states implemented restrictions – even outright bans.