The young woman who set fire to a Casper clinic offering abortions will have to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution.
Lorna Green owes the lion’s share — 80% — to the company that insured the clinic building, Nationwide General Insurance Company. About $33,500 will go to Christine Lichtenfels who owns the building, and another $24,500 will go to Julie Burkhart, founder of the Wellspring Health Access clinic.
The total is a bit higher than the estimates made at a September hearing, during which she was sentenced to five years in prison.
Lichtenfels is grateful her insurance covered the bulk of the property damages and that she was awarded the full restitution she requested, she said in an email. Still, she added, the amount doesn’t cover time lost or emotional damages, and it’s unclear when — or if — she’ll receive the restitution money.
“Lorna Green is currently serving her five year sentence and not able to generate such funds while in prison,” she said. “Formerly, she was a college student who didn’t have any notable assets nor an ability to make significant amounts of money. As a felon, her income generating abilities may be somewhat limited in the future.”
Lichtenfels requested Green only serve the mandatory minimum of five years in prison for her crime, but added at the sentencing she hoped that Green could learn to empathize with women who may seek an abortion.
In her email, Lichtenfels said, “I remain committed to women being treated as equal citizens who can themselves decide what is best for their own bodies and lives, safe from the interference of dangerous individuals like Lorna Green or over-reaching politicians.”
Ryan Semerad, Green’s lawyer, said the restitution order and amounts weren’t a surprise, and added in a statement that “Lorna Green, while serving her sentence, has agreed to repay the damages she caused as part of her efforts to atone for her actions.
“Ms. Green eagerly looks forward to a productive and peaceful life after her term of incarceration.”
The history
Green drove from Laramie to Casper in the middle of the night on May 25, 2022, lighting fire to the clinic after hearing news reports about its plan to offer abortions, investigators stated. Early estimates of the damage at the clinic were about $290,000.
It took police nearly a year to identify and arrest Green, which came after more award money and more images of the crime prompted four people to name her in tips.
Wellspring Health Access is the only remaining brick-and-mortar clinic publicly stating that it offers elective abortions in Wyoming, among a variety of other health services. While doctors in other facilities could theoretically prescribe medications to induce abortion, there has been little proven use of the practice here.
Wyoming passed a ban on medications used for abortion early this year — alongside a near-total ban — though a district court has stalled implementation as a lawsuit moves forward. Ninth District Court Judge Melissa Owens in Teton County is expected to make a major decision on that case in the coming weeks.
Medications that induce abortion are still available through the mail via online organizations like Just the Pill or Aid Access, though a separate federal case challenging approvals of one the main medications used — mifepristone — will soon go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Green is serving her five-year sentence at a minimum security federal prison in Alderson, West Virginia, as requested by her counsel during sentencing.
“She’s not a security risk,” Semerad said at the time.
Now, he added, she’s doing “as well as she can.”
Note: This story was updated at 4:18 p.m. Dec. 28. —Ed.
Bet she’d a gotten more prison time if she’d a done similar to a church. This country is stuck in the past, though it’s long gone and mired in dumb superstitions.
These minions of the decisiveness that the prior administration has caused, are getting what they deserve.