Manatee County declares 'Victory for Life Day' to celebrate Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade

Seneca Bristol sat in the third row of a crowded Manatee County meeting, and when her name was called the local 15-year-old girl quietly walked to the podium and criticized the board of county commissioners for proclaiming Tuesday as “Victory for Life Day.”

Late last month, while Manatee County was in its summer recess, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that established a woman’s right to an abortion.

In the first order of business after returning from summer break, Manatee County commissioners celebrated the controversial decision by proclaiming Tuesday as "Victory for Life Day." 

Previously: Florida AG pumps brakes on Manatee County abortion restrictions

Also: Abortion rights advocates protest, others 'relieved' in Sarasota about Roe v. Wade reversal

Opinion: Overturning Roe puts Florida's sex-trafficking survivors at risk

Bristol was among a dozen women from different generations who attended Tuesday’s meeting in protest of the proclamation.

“I’m here for all women,” she said. "I can't even drive yet, and you are telling me that I can have a child even if I'm raped, even if it's incest, no matter what it is, you are telling me that I am forced to have that child. You are telling every woman that they are forced to have this child, and that is not OK."

Manatee County’s pro-life proclamation

Over the past year, Manatee County’s elected officials have clashed with local activists over their stance on abortion rights after commissioner James Satcher proposed a county-level ban on abortion clinics, even though there are no clinics are offer abortions in Manatee County.

Advocacy groups like the Women’s Voices of Southwest Florida frequented meetings and mounted protests on days when the county commissioners debated and advanced Satcher’s proposal.

Ultimately, the board decided not to pursue a local ban after an opinion issued by the Florida Attorney General’s office advised the county to leave the matter up to the state – and soon afterward, state-level officials approved restrictions to ban abortion after 15 weeks.

Tuesday's proclamation thanked the five supreme court justices who ruled in favor of overturning the decision, former Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump for appointing them, and other political figures who vote for pro-life values such as U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan and Florida state Rep. Will Robinson, Rep. Tommy Gregory and Sen. Jim Boyd.

Robinson attended the meeting to “proudly” accept the proclamation.

“I am very proud of the pro-life policies that we adopted in Florida including the 15-week ban, which is actually in my view a moderate proposal,” Robinson said at the meeting. “Florida, in my view, will stop being an abortion factory because of this law.”

“It’s a victory for life, but the fight moves on,” he said.

'I am pro-choice': Manatee commissioner publicly shares raw details of her own abortion as ban debated

Republican Commissioner Vanessa Baugh made the motion to approve the proclamation.

“I do feel that the right thing was done because any child, that’s a life, and we need to preserve it and protect it,” Baugh said.

Democratic Commissioner Reggie Bellamy was the lone nay vote.

“I do think we are in a very, very unfortunate time in our society if we are in a situation where we are taking the voice away from women,” he said.

Generations of women criticize Manatee County

The audience Tuesday was mostly filled by women from various generations concerned about the suppression of their reproductive rights, and a group of moms who showed up to chastise the county over separate efforts to allow employees to carry firearms while at work.

Bristol, who attended the meeting in support of Women’s Voices for Southwest Florida, expressed frustration that politicians were interfering with her autonomy.

Sarasota County resident Leah Tiberini, 22, admonished the board of county commissioners from behind the safety of a mask that said “I Support Animal Rights” with a picture of a bunny rabbit on it.

“These are things that our grandmothers, mothers, and the women before them had to fight for,” Tiberini told the Herald-Tribune. “It’s so inappropriate that they are proclaiming, celebrating, doing whatever, for this absolute attack on our constitutional rights.”

Denzil Sol, 88, was also in the audience Tuesday morning wearing a purple shirt that read: "Mind Your Own Uterus."

She has considered herself an activist since she first protested the use of napalm during the Vietnam War, and has supported many causes like the Civil Rights Movement and Women’s Movement in the 1950s and 60s.

“Now here we are again, way back to where we were 55 years ago,” Sol said. “Once you feel a responsibility to yourself and your friends, and the other people in the world, you have the choice to sit back and say, ‘My my’ or get out there and do what you can to change it. So I’ve always been one for doing what I could.”

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Manatee County commissioners declare 'Victory for Life Day' at meeting