Pueblo mayor: 'Nothing I can do' to stop contested abortion clinic

Anti-abortion activists in Pueblo exceeded the fire code capacity of city council chambers Monday night to demonstrate against a planned abortion clinic.

But the city can’t do anything at this point to stop the clinic from opening, Mayor Nick Gradisar said to the at-times unruly crowd, which hurled insults such as “baby killer” and “murderer” while he spoke.

“The Colorado legislature and Colorado voters have determined that abortion is legal in Colorado," Gradisar said. "There's nothing I can do as the mayor to reverse that determination."

Between hecklers shouting that they did not want an abortion clinic in Pueblo, Gradisar said that the site is already zoned for a medical facility and that the city has “basically no regulatory authority.”

Gradisar accidentally left his microphone on as many people were exiting the chambers after the commentary portion of the meeting. He was overheard by viewers on the Facebook livestream, referring to a member of the audience as "crazy" member of the Pueblo Patriots.

The Chieftain has previously reported that the clinic has not yet determined an opening date.

A representative from the Clinics for Abortion and Reproductive Excellence did not respond to requests for comment from the Chieftain prior to its Tuesday print deadline.

The property slated to the the future site of the clinic in Pueblo’s Bessemer neighborhood and adjacent to St. Mary Corwin Hospital was purchased in September.

Abortion services have not been available in Pueblo for years. A Planned Parenthood clinic left town in 2015, but it did not perform abortions. The closest clinic is a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs.

Councilor Regina Maestri on Monday directed the city’s legal department to draft an ordinance prohibiting abortion clinics in Pueblo, modeled from a similar ordinance passed earlier this month in Hobbs, New Mexico, to make Pueblo “a sanctuary city for the unborn.”

Pueblo’s director of public affairs, Haley Sue Robinson, told the Chieftain that council will enter executive session on Monday, Nov. 21, to receive legal advice from city attorneys on Maestri’s proposal.

Councilor Lori Winner agreed with Maestri, saying that the city should consider a similar ordinance to the one passed in Hobbs.

“I think there's definitely some gray areas when it comes to abortion and that should be done between a professional OBGYN and the circumstances that go along with that. But no abortion clinics (in Pueblo),” Winner said to loud applause from the audience.

Council President Heather Graham needed to quiet the crowd a few times, but thanked people for attending the meeting.

“Your presence is felt tonight, your voices have been heard. (There are) councilors who are willing to look at an ordinance and getting that passed," Graham said. "And that's what we do up here: we pass ordinances. That’s our job."

She encouraged people to contact councilors about the issue, adding that she’s already been fielding a lot of voicemails and emails: “that’s the way you go about making a movement.”

Four other councilors — Vicente Martinez Ortega, Sarah Martinez, Larry Atencio and Dennis Flores — avoided discussing abortion during their remarks.

Hobbs is a city of 40,000 residents in southeast New Mexico, mere miles from the border with Texas. Abortion is legal throughout the state, with minimal restrictions.

A national abortion provider had been considering opening a clinic in Hobbs or a nearby town, according to Reuters. Local station KRQE reported that the town of Clovis is also considering a similar ordinance.

But a recently passed law in Colorado, the Reproductive Health Equity Act, affirms Coloradans’ right to reproductive health care and explicitly bans state and local governments from interfering in its delivery.

“The act prohibits state and local public entities from denying, restricting, interfering with, or discriminating against an individual's fundamental right to use or refuse contraception or to continue a pregnancy and give birth or to have an abortion in the regulation or provision of benefits, services, information, or facilities,” the bill text states.

State Rep. Daneya Esgar of Pueblo, is ending her last two-year term in the legislature as the house majority leader, was one of the prime sponsors of the bill.

“Your access to health care shouldn't depend on your zip code. … We need to make sure that everybody has access. It's a matter of statewide concern that affects the health and safety of all Coloradans,” Esgar said.

Esgar emphasized that Colorado voters have repeatedly rejected ballot questions that would curtail abortion access. Coloradans most recently rejected Proposition 115 in 2020, which would have banned abortions after 22 weeks. Pueblo County voters also sided with the majority of the state in rejecting the proposed ban.

“We talk about listening to voters — I think it's high time that we all listen to voters,” Esgar said.

The Supreme Court struck down the 50-year precedent of Roe v. Wade in June, which had guaranteed the right to abortion procedures. Since then, more than a dozen of predominantly Republican-controlled states have enacted near-total abortion bans.

Colorado abortion clinics have reported an uptick in patients since other states have banned abortion.

Although the Republican party and most GOP politicians have embraced opposition to abortion, the majority of Americans support the right to access to the procedure.

Monday's crowd, however, was organized around its opposition to abortion. Public comment during city council meetings is limited to six, five-minute speeches, half of which were made by anti-abortion activists.

Most of the activists criticized third-trimester abortions, a service that the Pueblo-based CARE clinic is not planning on offering.

Quin Friburg, a pastor at Family Worship Center, claimed that the opening of the clinic will “hurt the economy” of Pueblo and “put a drain on law enforcement due to the number of protests that will take place daily.”

One of the people to speak during public comment, Dr. Lena Pasternak, is a licensed physician practicing in Pueblo.

Pasternak claimed that “it is never medically necessary to perform an abortion in order to save the mother's life, especially when it comes to cases of third-trimester abortions,” adding that stillborn babies can still be delivered “safely” — ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages are not the same as abortions, she claimed.

“(The clinic’s) primary intent is to profit financially by intentionally ending the life of an innocent baby,” Pasternak said.

Pasternak’s statement has been refuted by other doctors and medical organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and Physicians for Reproductive Health regarding cases where pregnancy directly threatens a mother’s life, such as high-risk infections and preeclampsia within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Anna Lynn Winfrey covers politics for the Pueblo Chieftain. She can be reached at awinfrey@gannett.com or on Twitter, @annalynnfrey.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: 'Nothing I can do' to stop contested abortion clinic, Pueblo mayor says