MIAMI (WSVN) - Demonstrators took to the streets downtown Miami to voice their support for abortion rights in the wake of a House of Representatives vote on the issue.
Speaking with 7News in front of the Torch of Friendship on an overcast Saturday afternoon, protester Kat Duesterhaus said the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade sets a dangerous precedent.
“They won’t stop with Roe, so we have to fight back, in the streets and all the way into the polls,” she said.
“Our bodies, our rights,” Duesterhaus and two other demonstrators chanted as they held up signs.
“The rights for us to make individual decisions that are deeply personal to our lives are at stake here,” said Duesterhaus. “Access to birth control, the right for consenting adult Americans to marry or sleep with who they choose, these are all on the line.”
“They won’t stop at Roe,” chanted Duesterhaus.
“We won’t back down,” chanted the the other two protesters.
“The Republican platform specifically says Roe, Obamacare and Obergefell. Obergefell is marriage equality,” said a demonstrator. “They will not stop, and so, to think that we would actually deny people the right to get married simply because they’re of the same sex is absolute insanity to me.”
In the evening hours, more pro-choice protesters descended on downtown Miami to make their voices heard.
Among them was Desiray Figueroa, who said she is expecting her second child.
“I chose to be a mom. It’s my choice,” she said.
Figueroa said she wouldn’t be the mother she is today if it wasn’t for a decision she made as a teenager.
“When I was 15, I was with a high school boyfriend, and I got pregnant, and I wasn’t financially stable, and I fell into drugs after,” she said. “I wouldn’t have been a good parent if it wasn’t for the abortion that I had.”
Saturday’s pro-choice rally comes a day after the House Democrats voted to legalize abortions nationwide. The measure would expand Roe vs. Wade and prevent abortion bans earlier than 24 weeks, but it has little chance of becoming law because Democrats don’t have enough votes to get it through the Senate.
Without this measure, abortion rights and restrictions are up to the states.
The protest in downtown Miami began at around 7 p.m. From Bayfront Park, demonstrators marched up and down Biscayne Boulevard.
“I feel like we let our moms down. They fought so hard for women’s rights,” said a demonstrator.
Participants said they won’t stop until women can once again control what they do with their own bodies.
“This is about the options that you have, the choices that you [make]. It’s not about right or wrong decisions,” said protester Columba Yebaile. “Everybody has different choices, you know. For somebody, an abortion might be the best decision.”
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.