Abortion-rights rally draws diverse crowd to downtown Fort Lauderdale | Photos
Mayce Goodman, a 24-year-old Fort Lauderdale social worker, proudly took in her surroundings on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
About 100 men and women of all ages, ethnicities, and professions turned out for an abortion-rights rally at the Federal Building in downtown Fort Lauderdale.
“I love it,” Goodman said. “It’s amazing. It’s exactly what I was hoping to see — all walks of life.”
The message was simple: Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that grants women the choice to have an abortion, shouldn’t be overturned.
A leaked Supreme Court document indicates the landmark decision is on the verge of being reversed.
Numerous politicians spoke and attended the event, which lasted almost two hours, including Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who is also a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), State Sen. Shevrin Jones, Broward County Commissioner Nan Rich, Broward County School Board member Sarah Leonardi, State Rep. Daryl Campbell, and Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis.
Fried said all of our rights are on the chopping block if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
“The women that came before us, we stand on their shoulders,” she said.
Campbell said the message he hopes to send is a woman’s right over her body matters.
“What we’re saying is we’re moving backward,” he said.
Saturday’s message seemed to resonate with grassroots movements and everyday citizens as well as the political bigwigs.
“We can read the tea leaves to see Roe v. Wade is being decimated,” said Karen Fortman, president of the Broward County President’s Council of Democratic Clubs & Caucuses.
A handful of anti-abortion demonstrators set up across the street. One had a sign that read, “We love you and your baby.”
But it seemed to majority of the enthusiasm from passing motorists who honked their horns went toward the pro-abortion-rights crowd.
Most of those who attended the rally were in their 40s, 50s or 60s.
One middle-aged woman didn’t want to be identified because she said she feared retribution from her employer. She had a coat hanger around her neck and held a sign that read, “If men got pregnant the world would be a different place.”
She said she was wearing the coat hanger, a symbol of do-it-yourself abortions, “because I care about the future generations of women who have to do illegal abortions.”
Gabriela Tirado, a Sunrise resident who attends Rollins College near Orlando, went to the rally with Husam Osman, a 20-year-old Sunrise resident.
Tirado had a specific audience she hoped to reach by attending Saturday’s rally.
“Hopefully [I reach] educators because I feel like everything is based on education,” she said.
To Osman, the possible overturning of Roe v. Wade has deep repercussions.
“Really an attack on abortion should be seen as an attack on family planning,” he said.
Osman said women should have control over their bodies. He said it’s a human-rights issue.
“It’s important to let our legislators remember they can’t take it away from us,” he said.
