Photos: Abortion advocates rally in St. Pete following SCOTUS ruling | Tampa
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The controversial ruling spawned two separate back-to-back protests. First, the Women’s Advocacy Movement of Pinellas (WAMP) organized a “Bans off our Our bodies” rally at in North Straub Park, which was then adopted by the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) rally lower than a mile away on the steps of St. Petersburg’s Metropolis Corridor.
“We had been anticipating this, however it’s nonetheless disheartening,” co-founder of WAMP and rally organizer Cheyenne Cheile advised Artistic Loafing Tampa Bay.
By 5 p.m., a crowd had shaped at North Straub the place performers sang songs like “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gayner and audio system shared their anger, grief and private testimonies in relation to abortion advocacy.
Elected officers like congressman and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist, St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch and Florida Home member Rep. Michele Rayner-Goolsby attended the rally.
Rayner-Goolsby, the primary overtly queer Black girl to serve within the Florida Legislature, was the rally’s first featured speaker.
“We’ve got an election developing… We have got to ensure that we have now people that align with our beliefs,” Rayner-Goolsby stated because the rally’s opening speaker. “If we do not get severe about ensuring our individuals are protected, we’re not simply going to cease at abortion — it’ll be homosexual marriage, it’ll be interracial marriage, it’ll be contraceptives, it’ll be each proper that we thought that we had.”
“We’re in a Stonewall second,” she added.
Piggybacking off of Rayner-Goolsby’s sentiment, lots of the audio system who adopted emphasised the significance of voting for officers who promise to guard reproductive rights — notably in Florida, the place Gov. Ron DeSantis simply signed that every one abortions after 15 weeks are to be outlawed beginning July 1.
As storm clouds rolled in at 6:30 p.m., a crowd gathered on and across the steps of Metropolis Corridor for PSL Tampa Bay’s “In Protection of Abortion Rights” rally.
In keeping with PSL Tampa Bay management, this occasion had already been deliberate previous to yesterday’s information, as a leak of the decision surfaced over a month in the past.
“We did not wish to depart a second to waste, we wished to verify we had been in a position to mobilize the identical day because the ruling,” Jack Wallace advised CL.
Whereas each of the night’s marches condemned the SCOTUS and its determination, PSL Tampa Bay went additional to carry each Republican and Democrat politicians accountable.
“Neither (get together is) standing up for our rights, and we do not assume that voting actually goes to alter that sadly,” Wallace stated.
Bullhorn in hand, PSL member and native organizer Karla Correa defined how the Democrats “may’ve codified (Roe v. Wade) into regulation.”
“(Democrats) simply wish to use our abortion rights as political bargaining chips. You know the way many texts and emails I obtained from Democrats asking me for cash?”
Earlier than passing the bullhorn to audio system from different allied socialist organizations, Correa referred to the Supreme Courtroom because the “enemy of the individuals” and referred to as for its abolition.
“Working class and poor girls make up the vast majority of individuals getting abortions,” stated Taylor Prepare dinner from the Freedom Road Socialists. “They are going to be affected essentially the most by this, dealing with a brand new purpose for criminalization…”
Regardless of a rainstorm, the rally marched from Metropolis Corridor down Central Avenue.
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