In downtown Orlando, honking can be heard on almost every corner. However, it was not traffic that prompted honks on Maguire Boulevard last Monday, but support for a local abortion rights rally.

Held on June 24, the two-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 6-3 vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, Orlando’s Right to Abortion Rally took place in Orlando Festival Park. Connecting with other organizations, including Yes On 4, The Ruth Project, and Poder Latinx, organizers said 160 people registered for the rally, with even more in attendance.

“We sort of figured that it would maybe be 20 people walking in a circle with signs, so to have 160 [people] registered is amazing for us,” Orlando resident Shannon Fontana said.

As the park filled with families, cardboard signs, local organizations, and even pets, the voices of Central Floridians were raised, and it all began with a TikTok.

After watching a video posted by the National Women’s March calling for action against the overturn of Roe, Fontana joined forces with Nicole Shim, Lexxie Rodriguez, Rachel Arnold, and Kate Wells to create Women’s Strike Orlando, a social media campaign encouraging Floridians to attend the rally and advocate for women’s reproductive rights.

Shim, a teacher from South Florida, first reached out to the Women’s March organization after seeing their calls to action on TikTok to see if any abortion access rallies were scheduled in Florida, and she was not the only one. Individually, all five women learned there were no rallies planned in the state and were each inspired to organize a Florida event. The women then connected over social media and in early May began the process of organizing the rally. Despite the distance between them (around 265 miles between Shim and Rodriguez, who lives in Deltona, Fla.) the group coined themselves as “The Liberty Sisters,” and had their first in-person union at the rally.

“We worked really well together for not having met, it was so smooth,” Fontana said.

While the women behind Women’s Strike Orlando all came from different generations, backgrounds, and counties, they were united over their shared passions for abortion access and personal freedoms. The women continued to work together leading up to the event, holding weekly calls on WhatsApp and spreading their message across Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Fontana, a mother of three with two daughters, worries how a total abortion ban could impact the future of her children.

“I have had two abortions in my life that I don’t regret, and I’m glad I was able to make those decisions because I was not ready to be a mom when they happened,” Fontana said. “I’m terrified that my daughters wouldn’t be able to make that kind of decision. It’s unacceptable.”

Similar to Fontana, Shim also has two daughters and has had an abortion due to a rare genetic disease she carries. At the time of her abortion, Shim was being treated on chemotherapy and on medications that could lead to a high risk of birth defects in a fetus, so her abortion was a healthcare procedure.

“One of my daughters also has the genetic disorder that I have, and if that happened and they were on medication, [an abortion] would be a medical necessity,” Shim said. “If that had happened to me now, I would have been in a different predicament and would have to leave the state.”

Rodriguez, who works in public health, not only fears how the overturn of Roe could lead to a total ban on abortions, but to a ban on access to healthcare information.

“I hear a lot of the calls about the women that can’t get the care that they need, they don’t know where to turn,” Rodriguez said. “So that is another thing we want to focus on, getting resources out there so we can get this put back right.”

Wells, a senior from Sanford, Fla., felt immediate motivation after watching the TikTok and learning of other events being held across the country.

“I was just pissed,” Wells said. “I saw there was one in Washington, D.C. It’s like, ‘Why can’t we have a march like that?’ ”

The group gathered in Festival Park around 10 a.m, where Arnold gave a welcome speech to the crowd. Her opening remarks were followed by Florida House Rep. Dr. Anna Eskamani, who serves District 42 and the surrounding Orlando area.

Eskamani also shares a deep connection to the overturn of Roe. Before joining the Florida House in 2018, she worked as the Senior Director of Public Affairs and Communications at Planned Parenthood and volunteered as a clinic escort.

Growing up in Orlando, Eskamani said she was taught abstinence in the public school system, with little information given to her or her peers about birth control. With her mother passing during her adolescence, Eskamani said she found it difficult to gain access to proper sex education and healthcare — an experience that launched her into a career in activism and political action.

“It was very demoralizing and shaming towards women, so that’s what really pushed me to try to get my own information,” Eskamani said.

Throughout Eskamani’s speech, she encouraged attendees to vote in the upcoming local and presidential elections, reminding voters that abortion will be on the Florida ballot in November and could be impacted by the presidential race.

“It is devastating,” Eskamani said. “Our abortion funds are underfunded and overworked. There has been a lot of confusion within hospitals and what doctors can and can’t do. It took 50 years of methodical, aggressive campaigning and strategy to overturn Roe, so we have to have not just that same level of focus, but even more so to build our rights back.”

Following Eskamani’s speech, Gabriela Gongora-Rosales, an officer for The Ruth Project, a gender-equity organization that fights discriminatory policies within school boards and beyond, shared how sexual harassment at her high school had led her to join advocacy efforts for women’s rights both in and outside of her community of Sanford, Fla.

Gongora-Rosales learned of the event through her work with The Ruth Project, bringing in the Young Feminist Party organization as a collaborator for the event.

“It felt important to attend this event because it was an opportunity for me to do my part in educating my community and encouraging young people to get involved in protecting reproductive justice,” Gongora-Rosales said. “Young people, especially, often have strong feelings about protecting reproductive rights, but they rarely take action, so part of the importance of this event was to encourage young people to get involved in the causes that matter to them.” 

 As a young woman, Gongora-Rosales has had her own fears due to the overturn of Roe, but she hopes her efforts, along with those of other reproductive-rights advocates, will lead to change.

“When the decision was first released two years ago, I felt disenfranchised, disappointed and alone, but reproductive rights are on the ballot in Florida this fall, so I trust that young people and Floridians will come out and show their support,” Gongora-Rosales said.

After the speeches from the organizers, the attendees marched around the park, chanting “My body, my choice” and carrying signs that many made at home. Phrases such as “Mind your own uterus” and “Abortion is for every(body)” were painted onto the cardboard signs, many of which were decorated with abstract illustrations of the female body and brightly colored doodles, such as flowers and hearts. Gongora-Rosales and other members of The Ruth Project held a sign-making party the Saturday before the rally, where they crafted signs to hand out at the rally.

“One of the most effective parts of rallies and protests is the feeling of community that so many attendees feel when they are at these events,” Gongora-Rosales said. “Seeing people take photos and use our signs at the rally was so empowering — we were all united under our support for a common cause.” 

After the speeches, the floor was opened to any attendees who wanted to share stories of how Roe’s overturn has impacted their lives. Many testimonies involved difficult topics, such as child abuse and sexual assault, highlighting the many ways a world without Roe could impact women and young girls.

Fontana, Shim, Rodriguez, Arnold, and Wells plan on forming a permanent organization to continue their fight for abortion access and to end the current six-week abortion ban implemented in Florida. Along with Eskamani, the group aims to spread awareness on the issue among young voters and encourage them to make their voices heard in the upcoming election.

“We are half of the population, but we are not being represented in government. If our elected officials are not speaking up for us, we need to put people in who are,” Fontana said. “When it comes to women’s issues, people tend to just laugh them off, and after years of being told that your issues don’t matter, I think we’re done with that. We’re done asking, we’re demanding.”

–June 27, 2024–