'Our bodies, our choice': Hundreds gather at Duval County Courthouse in rally for abortion access

After a draft opinion by the Supreme Court leaked Monday night showing the court may overturn Roe v. Wade, Women's March Florida's Jacksonville chapter organized a rally for Wednesday night that turned out several hundred people in support of abortion rights.

Activists and supporters gathered in front of the Duval County Courthouse at 6 p.m., and following planned speeches, protesters marched to James Weldon Johnson Park and then returned to the courthouse.

Monique Sampson, who is an organizer with the Jacksonville Community Action Committee and also in the third trimester of her pregnancy, says she has "always been pro-choice."

"But actually being pregnant has made me even more pro-choice because it's very difficult to be pregnant and it's very difficult to carry a life," Sampson said. "I wanted this child so bad, but that's the freedom of choice and the freedom of determining my own destiny."

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On Tuesday, the Supreme Court verified the leak was authentic but that it did not represent the the final decision of the court. Chief Justice John Roberts launched an investigation into the leak, according to a statement.

Abortion is still legal nationwide, something the anti-abortion protesters at Jacksonville's Wednesday night rally hope to see change soon.

Anna Coulter, a longtime picketer at Duval abortion clinics, held a sign up in front of the courthouse that called abortion "legalized murder." Coulter says she had a hypertonic saline abortion in 1975 when she was just 17 years old that changed her perspective.

She was single and unmarried, and neither her partner at the time nor her father, who raised her as a single parent, wanted her to carry the pregnancy to term. She says she was left alone in the room after the abortion and left to cry for hours in pain.

"I was in shock. I didn't say anything for a couple of days," Coulter said. "I just knew it was murder."

For others at the rally, access to abortion is about freedom, safety and health.

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Kamron Perry had an abortion when she was 20 years old. She's afraid that pregnant people would turn to unsafe methods to attempt a forced miscarriage if safe abortions are not available.

"I was very desperate. I was dealing with mental issues and medication that I couldn't be pregnant with," Perry said. "And I know a lot of women have done other things and I just would hate to see the desperation for women be compounded."

Katherine Lewin is the enterprise reporter at the Times-Union covering criminal and social justice issues in Northeast Florida. Email her at klewin@jacksonville.com or follow on Twitter @KatherineMLewin. Contact her for her Signal number to share anonymous tips and documents. Support local journalism!

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Abortion rights protest: Women's March Jax holds rally at Duval Courthouse