Park City hosts pro-choice rally amid nationwide protests

The pro-choice rally at City Park on Saturday afternoon. Photo: TownLift

PARK CITY, Utah — Park City Mayor Nann Worel spoke at a pro-choice rally in City Park on Saturday that was part of Planned Parenthood’s National Mobilization Day. Park City Councilwoman Becca Gerber and Summit County Councilwoman Malena Stevens also spoke. 

Hundreds of rallies took place nationwide under the banner “Bans Off Our Bodies” on Saturday, including in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.

A Supreme Court draft opinion leaked by Politico earlier this month suggests that the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide could be overturned. A law signed in Utah in 2020 would ban “all elective abortions with exception for rape, incest, and the health of a mother,” if Roe v. Wade is overturned.

“I’m speaking today as a woman, that is deeply offended that a hard-fought ruling that has stood for nearly 50 years is anticipated to be overturned,” Worel told the crowd, emphasizing that she wasn’t speaking for the city or residents. 

“I’m also speaking today as a former health care professional, that has been in the trenches… I have sat at my desk and wept as I have had to call Child Protective Services to report — as I was required to do — the pregnancy of a 13-year-old,” she said.

“Birth control is not solely the responsibility of women,” Worel noted, saying that education and knowledge is the most critical tool in preventing pregnancy.

“I believe it is imperative that I speak up in defense of the rights of our citizens,” Gerber told the crowd. She said her mother and mother-in-law both received abortions in the 1970s, and that “they would be “enraged at the idea that their granddaughter born in 2020 might not have the same access to abortions as them.”

“If Roe v Wade is reversed the decision to repeal abortion rights in the state of Utah and elsewhere will have a disproportionate negative impact on our poor and vulnerable populations,” Stevens said.

“We must use and increase all of the tools within our toolbox that we have available, and it must include lobbying and influencing our state legislators.”

Summit County Councilman and U.S. House candidate Glenn Wright also attended along with Park City Councilmembers Tana Toly and Max Doilney.