On Thursday, a woman who set afire what would be Wyoming’s lone abortion clinic in at least a decade was sentenced to half a decade in prison and three years of probation for delaying the clinic’s opening by almost a year. The clinic was damaged by fire in May of 2022, weeks before it was scheduled to open.
Lorna Roxanne Green, who admitted in July to starting the fire at Wellspring Health Access in Casper, Wyoming, was facing up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. At her plea hearing, she apologized for and accepted full responsibility for the arson. She received the obligatory minimum punishment of five years. She must also pay reparation in a sum to be established later.
Green said police burned down the clinic because she was worried about abortion and strongly opposed the procedure.
The clinic’s delayed opening was due to extensive structural damage during its remodeling. Green allegedly admitted in court that she broke into the facility, poured gasoline all over the inside, and set it on fire.
The Casper College mechanical engineering student, told investigators she was against abortion despite her social media profiles showing the opposite.
According to a court complaint, she admitted to a federal agent from the ATF that she had bought aluminum pans and the gas the day before the fire and driven to Casper to set the place ablaze.
According to the paper, she admitted to using a rock to smash through a door’s glass and pour gasoline into the pans before burning the wicks.
Investigators claimed they made little headway until the reward for her capture was raised to $15,000 in March; at this point, several anonymous tips identified Green as the arsonist.
The clinic opened in April and is the first of its kind in the state in at least ten years. It offers both surgical and pill abortions. Abortions can be obtained in only one other clinic in Wyoming, located in Jackson, 250 miles away, and even then, only through a pill.
