Beliefs about whether abortions should be legal are deeply entrenched. As restrictions are being challenged in courts across our region, two women on opposite sides of the issue shared what led them to what they believe.
For both of them, it began with a pregnancy.
鈥業t was a baby鈥�
鈥奙arti Halverson sat in the community center in her two-square-mile community of Etna in western Wyoming. She was sporting a silver bob with a fringe of bangs and a black vest with a distinct gold pin on it.
鈥淚t says GOP,鈥� Halverson said. 鈥淚 think we鈥檙e pretty clear I鈥檓 a Republican.鈥�
She said she鈥檚 been one since her father gave the information for her birth certificate.
鈥淗e said, 鈥榊eah, boy, girl, boy, girl. Where do I put Republican?鈥欌�� Halverson said proudly, as if she鈥檚 told that story hundreds of times.
Hanging from the pin was a pair of tiny, gold feet.
鈥淲e wear this to remind ourselves that these perfectly formed feet are 10 weeks after conception,鈥� Halverson said.
She鈥檚 the leader of advocacy group Wyoming Right to Life and a former state lawmaker. Halverson is a staunch abortion opponent, but it wasn鈥檛 always that way.
鈥淚t was in 1973 that I first got pregnant,鈥� she recalled. 鈥淚 was 21.鈥�
She and her husband hadn鈥檛 planned to start a family for a couple years.
鈥淏ut accidents happen and my doctor gleefully informed me that I could have an abortion,鈥� Halverson said. 鈥淚 had to ask her, 鈥榃hat is an abortion?鈥欌��
Just a few months earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court had recognized womens鈥� right to an abortion in the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, yet this had not been a topic in Halverson鈥檚 household.
鈥淲hen she explained it to me, I was mortified,鈥� Halverson said. 鈥淓ven though our baby wasn't planned. It was a baby. It was there. There was no getting around it, no escaping it, and killing it was out of the question.鈥�
She quickly found another doctor and went through with her pregnancy.
Shuffling through a stack of pamphlets and studies that support her beliefs, Halverson said her Christian faith has nothing to do with her opposition to abortion.
鈥淚t is science driven,鈥� she said. 鈥淟ife begins at conception.鈥�
But that鈥檚 something Wyomingites are debating. Abortion remains legal in the state, but the Wyoming Supreme Court if the government can ban the practice in most cases. It鈥檚 one of many states, including and , where abortion access has been reconsidered after Roe was overturned three years ago.
鈥楾his is my daughter鈥檚 legacy鈥�
Another Wyoming resident, Riata Little Walker, used to be opposed to abortion.
鈥溾�奍 would've always said that I was pro-life with exceptions for rape, incest and danger to the mother,鈥� Walker recalled, while sitting cross-legged on her brown leather sectional on the east side of the state in Casper.
She said she was raised Catholic and conservative on a family ranch, but her beliefs were challenged in 2020, when she and her husband were pregnant with their first daughter.
鈥淚 got a call from my doctor,鈥� Walker said. 鈥淪he said, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e now high-risk.鈥欌��
Walker had just had a 21-week scan.
鈥淪he had heart defects,鈥� Walker said. 鈥淲e were told, if you make it to term and if she survives birth, then she'll have a very complex existence 鈥� it really hit me that, oh my gosh, she's never leaving a hospital.鈥�
Then the young couple was given the same option as Halverson.
鈥淯ltimately we made the decision based off of her heart,鈥� Walker explained. 鈥淪he did not deserve to suffer and die in a painful way.鈥�
So Walker and her husband decided to have an abortion and induce labor early.
鈥淚 held her in her final few minutes of her life,鈥� Walker said. 鈥淲e had her baptized right there.鈥�
A matter of freedom
She now has two healthy kids, aged 4 and 1, but keeps her first daughter close in a little bronze heart-shaped urn.
鈥淕oogle AI says that I'm an abortion advocate 鈥� something I never thought that I would ever be,鈥� Walker said. 鈥淚n my mind, this is my daughter's legacy.鈥�
She said that if she wants people like her to have the right to choose, everyone should have that right.
鈥淎nd so now I say I err on the side of freedom,鈥� she explained.
For Halverson, the issue is also about that same traditional conservative value of freedom.
鈥淲hat about the freedom for the baby?鈥� she asked. 鈥淲hat about the freedom for that life?鈥�
Wyoming justices have until late summer to make a decision on the state鈥檚 abortion bans.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, 糖心vlog传媒 in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the .