POCATELLO — The Gate City joined a nationwide wave of women’s rights protests on Saturday with nearly 200 pro-choice sign-wielding demonstrators showing up outside Pocatello City Hall for the cause.

The rally was organized as part of the Women’s March organization’s call for groups to hold marches in all 50 states on Oct. 2. Thousands of people across the country participated, from Idaho to Texas and Washington, D.C.

The Rev. Jenny Peek of Pocatello Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, alongside Pocatello People of Color United, coordinated the event locally because they wanted Pocatello’s voice to be heard in the movement.

The rallygoers lined both sides of Pocatello Avenue for about two hours on Saturday afternoon and waved signs that read “Your laws can’t control my body,” “Woman’s choice” and “Mind your own uterus” in opposition to laws that attempt to control whether and when women can abort a pregnancy.

“Everybody across the nation was going to have something and I thought, ‘Pocatello needs to be on that map,’” Peek said. “I mean, it’s important. Folks here are a minority. They’re too often silenced or they don’t feel like it’s even safe in a conservative community to voice these strong opinions.”

Jim Mariani, a Pocatello resident who attended the rally on Saturday, told the Idaho State Journal he felt it was important to support a women’s rights demonstration in Pocatello because of the possibility that the conservative majority U.S. Supreme Court could overturn Roe v. Wade, a landmark case that for decades has protected women’s right to have an abortion.

“I wanted to raise awareness about this issue because at some point if Roe v. Wade gets overturned, each state legislature is going to have to decide what to do with abortion rights,” Mariani said. “So raising more community awareness is important.”

Peek said she wants Idaho legislators to know that pro-choice people make up some of their constituencies so that they consider that in their decision-making when it comes to the issue of abortion.

“We just want to remind our legislators and let them know that we’re here and that we have these views,” she said. “I’m not pro-abortion, nobody is. I just want to give people a platform to share their support for women’s access to affordable, safe health care and a woman’s right to abortion if she needs to.”