Vice President Kamala Harris visited Tallahassee last Sunday as the keynote speaker for a rally commemorating the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
Harris decried the overturning of Roe while denouncing the ensuing wave of state-level anti-abortion legislation just blocks away from the Florida Capitol.
“Last year, so-called leaders at the statehouse in Tallahassee passed a radical abortion ban,” Harris told a crowd of roughly 1,500 people. “The right of every woman in every state in the country to make decisions about her own body is on the line.”
Those who attended Harris’ speech received a ticket online after submitting a request through the White House and waited in line for hours in the rain.
Toward the end of her nearly 18-minute speech, Harris announced that President Joe Biden would be signing a presidential memorandum to protect access to abortion medication.
The memorandum directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security to consider new guidance to “support patients, providers, and pharmacies who wish to legally access, prescribe, or provide mifepristone—no matter where they live.”
Mifepristone is a medication approved by the FDA that is used to induce abortions in those who take it. The drug has been banned in many states that have criminalized abortions since Roe was overturned.
The memorandum also directs the same members of Biden’s cabinet to safeguard patient safety and security by ensuring that patients can access reproductive care without the threat of violence.
Before Harris spoke, state and national leaders provided their own remarks on the topic of reproductive rights.
Florida House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell took the stage first, urging the crowd of supporters to take action.
“We are all in this together and we will not yield,” she said. “We need to fight, we must fight.”
Next to the stage was Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union.
“Workers everywhere are rising up to fight anti-Roe legislation,” she told the crowd. “All of us have a stake in this fight.”
President and CEO of Planned Parenthood, Alexis McGill Johnson, gave one of the most passionate speeches of the day.
“The opposition wants a nationwide ban on abortion, but that is not what the people want,” she told a fired-up crowd. “The majority of Americans have shown up to say ‘we want freedom, not fear.’”
Florida Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book approached the speaker’s podium with her daughter in her arms.
“When she was born, her and her twin brother had equal rights,” Book said. “Today that cannot be said.”
During the wait between speakers, an energized crowd could be heard reciting chants such as “Hey hey, ho ho, Ron DeSantis has got to go,” and “Abortion is healthcare.”
Members of Generation Action, the collegiate affiliate of Planned Parenthood were in attendance.
“It was empowering to see the turnout, but I will say it was disappointing to see that the turnout for young people was low,” Trissha Kumar, vice president of Generation Action at FSU told FSView. “However, even with minor flaws, there was a lot to take away from this and I am so privileged and proud to be a part of an organization like GenAction and Planned Parenthood.”
“I personally took a lot away from not only VP Harris’s speech, but the other amazing women like Dr. Prabhakaran, since she is, quite literally, who I want to be when I grow up and the representation I always wanted,” Kumar said. “I hope to see more support for GenAction in the future, especially since our initiative this semester is advocating for access to free menstrual products on campus.”
A small protest occurred outside of the venue with three protestors holding up signs that read “Choose life.”
Many are expecting DeSantis and his allies in the Florida Legislature to add stricter anti-abortion legislation to the agenda when the legislature convenes in March.
Despite widespread support for anti-abortion legislation among Republican elected officials, almost 60% of Floridians oppose the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade according to a poll conducted by the University of South Florida.
