Protests already planned across Florida following U.S. Supreme Court decision on abortion

Mere hours after the long-anticipated U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion rights advocates are already planning protests.

More than a dozen Democratic and left-leaning organizations are planning rallies to protest the “draconian measures of the Supreme Court,” according to the group Students for a Democratic Society.

A protest is scheduled at 5 p.m. in the state capital, on the steps of the historic Florida Capitol building. But others are scheduled elsewhere on Friday and over the weekend.

“Now the Supreme Court has decided to overturn Roe V. Wade, despite a Democrat controlled White House and Congress,” the group’s press release says. “There can be no doubt that the capitalist state is in crisis after killing well over a million people throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The politicians of both parties have no intention of stopping the restriction of abortion rights, all power is in mass struggle.”

Rep. Anna Eskamani, an Orange County Democrat, is hosting an “emergency rally” to discuss the “devastating impact of this decision” in Orlando at 5 p.m. as well.

The National Women’s Liberation’s Gainesville chapter will host a rally Saturday at the Alachua County Courthouse, according to an Instagram post Friday.

In early May, abortion rights advocates gathered across the state when the U.S. Supreme Court’s draft opinion on the Mississippi 15-week abortion ban was leaked, which first signaled to many Americans that the days of federal abortion protections were numbered.

The Roe v. Wade case of 1973 that legalized abortions goes back nearly a half a century.