Thousands Protest at Utah State Capitol Over Fundamental Right to Abortions: 'Our Lives Are at Stake'

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Some 4,000 abortion rights protestors gathered at the steps of the Utah State Capitol on Saturday holding signs and standing firm, knowing that conservative legislators weren't inside the building and likely wouldn't budge from their objection to abortions. The state passed a trigger law two years ago — if Roe v. Wade is reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court, an immediate ban on abortions goes into effect, with exceptions for rape, incest, and the health of the mother.

"Listen to your constituents," one sign read. Even in one of the most religious, conservative states in the country, 86 percent of Utahns in a recent poll said the decision to keep or terminate a pregnancy should be made by the pregnant person, three quarters want no more abortion laws, and 55 percent said abortion should be allowed in all or most circumstances.

"How is this democracy?" a cardboard sign read.

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Eve Thompson-Brown, 16, a high school junior in Salt Lake City, was one of the organizers and speakers for the Planned Parenthood rally. She had three AP tests and was in need of a prom dress when the Supreme Court leak became public. She jumped into action, leading an impromptu protest. "We can't vote. I can't drive," she says, but her classmates showed up and were among those in the crowd Saturday. "It is so surreal to be worrying about my most fundamental human rights while I have to go to school and while I have to worry about AP season and while I have to do assignments. I have to compartmentalize it."

From the Capitol steps she led the crowd in a chant — "Get up, get down, Salt Lake is a pro-choice town!" and "Not the church, not the state, women must control our fate!"

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"It was incredible to see thousands of people here today to rally and to protest and support because it reminds all of us that there is a community that we have, that a majority are fighting for us and for our rights and for our bodies, and it reminds us the scale of the fight," Thompson-Brown said.

"I've been a community organizer for four years, my focus has always been women and girls," she added. "Reproductive justice is something that always hits home. The people that I grew up with have uteruses, so this is my family, this is myself – it is my rights that I'm fighting for."

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"It's terrifying being in an unprotected state, being 16 years old and knowing when I go out, I have a one in six chance of being raped. We shouldn't be here but we have to be, and I could not be anywhere else. I have to be fighting, I have to be organizing and I have to be speaking because I cannot just sit back and worry for my life, for my little siblings' lives," Thompson-Brown shared.

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The state legislature "failed us," she added. "It's absolutely infuriating to be reminded that the majority of people want people with uteruses to have control over their own bodies. It's so fundamental, and we need to keep reminding people of that because our representatives in this legislature are not representing us ... Our lives are at stake, this is not something that can be debatable."

Just like the majority of the crowd, she promised, "I am going to continue showing up, I'm not going away. It is a very seriously likelihood that Roe will be overturned, or at the very least that abortion restrictions will increase, and I'm going to keep showing up, I'm going to keep protesting, we're going to organize a protest when they decide and after."

Thompson-Brown's grandmother, Susan Walker, 85, is her inspiration. A former NICU nurse, Walker served on the board of Planned Parenthood 50 years ago. "I've been protesting women's rights forever because it's so important," she shared, and she was sure to attend this protest. "What people don't realize is, it's not a baby. It's a fetus. It's no bigger than your fingernail. Their lungs aren't developed, they're not developed. And they don't have the resources to take care of these children if they do have these children, that's the problem. I don't know how many foster children there are, and that's not always a good situation."

RELATED: Protests Erupt Across the Nation Ahead of Expected Roe v. Wade Reversal by Supreme Court

Judy Calder, 78, a retired administrative assistant to a dean of Salt Lake Community College, has been protesting this issue for 60 years. She remembered celebrating when Roe v. Wade was passed and organizing at the college in support of the Equal Rights Amendment. "I thought this was settled law, and the Supreme Court nominees said that, and now they don't say that. They should be held accountable," Calder said. "And there are two on the court who have been accused of sexual assault, and they shouldn't be on the Supreme Court. Period. Nor should they be making any kind of decisions about our bodies."

"I'm not going to give up. Women have rights too and it's time that we make that known. What are they going to take away next? If they can take away this right, what else can they take away – our right to vote?" Calder says she wrote to Sen. Mitt Romney. "I encouraged him to vote for the bill that would override this mess, and he wrote back and said he would vote against the bill."

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Signs in the crowd declared, "Supreme Court Justices (& Politicians) Make Terrible Doctors." "We Can't Change the GOP, But We Can Outnumber Them," "Vasectomies Prevent Abortions," "Protect Safe Abortions or the blood is on your hands and our hangers," "If men got pregnant you could get an abortion at Home Depot," and one simply said "1973."

Wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with "our future, our fight, our bodies," Angie Christensen arrived before the rally started. "This is something that's always been important to me. I actually had an abortion myself, and I think becoming a grandmother last year has made me realize that I need to fight. I haven't before. And it's time to. (My granddaughter) needs to have rights," she stated.

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Christensen said she had an abortion at age 29. She and her husband split up, and she couldn't afford her two children, she noted. Christensen had just started a job as a billing specialist and was living in a one-bedroom apartment, which she said took most of her paycheck: "I could barely afford myself so another child would have been a financial burden, an emotional burden, and at that time, I didn't have my kids with me so I didn't think it was fair to them that I was having another baby when I couldn't even be with them." The kids stayed with their grandparents at the time.

She eventually regained custody of her children. "Now I work for the postal service and everybody's doing great. I know I made the right decision for myself. There are some people in my family who know — my kids know — there are some people in my family who don't know. I don't think the government should have any say in what I do with my body, or what my granddaughter does with her body, or what my daughter does with her body. I don't care if it's federal or state, it shouldn't be up to them, it should be up to us," Christensen said.

She's not sure the Utah state legislature will listen to the protesters, but she hopes it will. "I don't like the trigger law that's going to go into effect [in Utah] if this is overturned. I think it's bulls—. I don't think the state or anybody else should have any say," noted Christensen.

RELATED VIDEO: Woman Whose Conception Sparked Roe v. Wade Case Breaks Silence: 'I'm Keeping a Secret but I Hate It'

Leta Vaughn, 60, drove nearly four hours from Moab to attend Saturday's protest because she doesn't want her nieces "to have to go through what my grandmother did. The story goes that she jump-roped herself to have an abortion. She jump roped so much that she induced her labor. I don't know if that's true or not. It's a family myth."

Corry Smith, 51, chief operating officer for a technology company, came with his wife and daughters. "When the Black Lives Matter movement started to happen a couple of years ago, that was the first time I ever went to a protest. It dawned on me that I've never gone and supported my wife and girls. They have gone to a lot of these protests over the years and I just would have stuff to do, I would mow the lawn, real important s—, you know." Tears welled up in his eyes, saying, "I get emotional about it because I just wish I would have had that epiphany a long time ago. I'm here to support their rights, and I don't think enough men do that. It's important that my wife and my kids and women have the same rights that men have over their bodies."

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"I feel like what's happening with Roe v. Wade, and even in the state of Utah with the abortion laws that have passed here, that if Roe v. Wade goes away, I know that their choices are going to be limited," he said. "I think they should have the right to choose and make decisions over their body. It's less about abortion for me, it's more about I want them to have the ability to choose and make their own choices. It does impair men's rights as well."

However, Smith was quick to say that protesting at the Capitol probably won't make a difference to legislators. "I've been here long enough and I appreciate the mentality of a lot of people that live in this state and the predominant religion, and I know what that's all about, and I just don't think that they're going to listen," he said. "But the challenge is like, what else do you do? I don't know what else to do. I feel like I can do three things – I can show up to these kinds of things, I donate money to an organization that is fighting for rights, and I can vote. It is challenging when you're in a state like this. It's extremely, extremely conservative and very far right leaning. It's really hard for people with the stance that I have to really make an impact in a state like this, but it doesn't mean I shouldn't try."