July Fourth 'We Won't Go Back' rally at Viera courthouse protests demise of Roe v. Wade
Wielding a black megaphone, Chelsea Partridge addressed a crowd of fellow protesters who braved withering heat on the Fourth of July to argue that their rights were being trampled.
"I am angry. I am angry that our freedoms are being taken away. You know why we're here: Our reproductive freedoms are under attack. Roe v. Wade has been overturned," said Partridge, who serves as Group 3 supervisor on the Brevard Soil & Water Conservation District.
"But it's so much more than that. We have so much to lose. SCOTUS recently struck down New York's concealed-carry law, which was the biggest expansion of gun rights in a decade," Partridge said.
"Our LGBTQ community is under attack," she said.
Monday afternoon, demonstrators waved signs outside the Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Justice Center during a "We Won't Go Back: Freedom for All of Us" rally in Viera. The crowd peaked at roughly 150 to 175 people, Partridge said.
Participants displayed signs to Stadium Parkway traffic bearing slogans such as:
"Keep Your Rosaries Off My Ovaries"
"No Uterus No Opinion"
"Abort the Government"
"Stop the War on Women!"
"Pro-Life Until it's UR Wife"
Protest organizers Partridge, 29, Jacob Gelman, 18, and Addisyn Mayer, 8, scheduled the rally after the Supreme Court's conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade, ending constitutional protections for abortions dating to 1973.
They had initially planned to cap the three-hour outdoor event by conducting a "die-in," but Partridge announced the plan was canceled because of hot weather. By 3 p.m., the temperature in Cocoa clocked in at 89 degrees — and the heat index hit 106, the National Weather Service reported.
What is a die-in? According to Lexico, a die-in is "a protest or demonstration in which a group of people gather and lie down as if dead."
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Mayer, a Florida Virtual School rising fourth grader from Port St. John, told the crowd Facebook trolls had questioned why a kid her age should worry about getting an abortion.
“Well, in Ohio in the last week, a 10-year-old girl was raped and was refused an abortion," Mayer said.
"So how can you tell me I shouldn't be worried about abortion rights?" she asked.
Kymberli Brooks, a tour guide at the Harry T. & Harriette V. Moore Cultural Complex in Mims, encouraged attendees to vote. She compared the government with "a poorly run Walmart."
"This country has been in crisis for a long time — but a number of leaders only thought things were wrong starting Jan. 6," Brooks said.
Rally speakers criticized Florida's Parental Rights in Education law, which took effect Friday and is labeled by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law. One such speakerwas Satellite Beach resident Shelley Rodden, who moved in 2014 from Atlanta to the Space Coast — "I had no idea how conservative this place was," she told the crowd.
Rodden taught social education at Eau Gallie High from 2014-20.
"I have been that teacher that a student has come out to. I have been that person that they felt safe with. This is horrendous legislation that we are about to go through," Rodden said.
Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @RickNeale1
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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Fourth of July rally protests demise of Roe v. Wade at Viera courthouse
