One day after Florida lawmakers filed bills that would bar abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, abortion-rights activists returned to one of Lakeland’s most visible locations to broadcast their outrage.
Several dozen people assembled in front of Southgate Shopping Center for a hastily arranged rally in response to the two bills filed last week during the opening day of the Florida Legislature’s 60-day session.
They held posters in hues of fuchsia and chartreuse bearing such handwritten messages as “We Won’t Go Back” and “Stop The War on Women.”
It was a familiar sight to drivers on South Florida Avenue. Abortion-rights advocates staged a series of rallies last summer after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling on June 24 nullifying the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which had established a federal right to an abortion.
Planned Parenthood of Florida organized demonstrations across the state this week in reaction to the new bills. State Sen. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, and Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Fort Myers, introduced the measures, SB 300 and HB 7, which would prohibit abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, a stage at which many people don’t yet know they are pregnant.
The bills follow upon a measure enacted last year setting the limit for abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy. That law has faced a legal challenge that isn’t likely to be resolved before the end of the legislative session in May.