Roughly seven months ago, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, putting American women’s reproductive rights in the hands of individual state governments.
In the midst of an ongoing battle for women’s reproductive rights, Vice President Kamala Harris co-hosted a pro-choice event at The Moon in Tallahassee Sunday with Planned Parenthood.
For nearly 50 years, Americans relied on abortion rights to plan their futures, protect their personal health, and evade the consequences of atrocious crimes such as rape and incest. Unfortunately, Florida is one of 22 states that has enacted restrictive abortion laws that are predicted to become more stringent in the near future.
“Can we truly be free if a woman cannot decide about her own body? Can we truly be free if a doctor cannot care for her patients? Can we truly be free if families cannot make intimate decisions about the course of their own lives?” questioned Harris.
The crowd confidently and profoundly replied “no” in unison to each of these questions.
Several clubs and organizations from FAMU attended the event together to support women’s reproductive rights. Their members were moved by the inspirational words of Vice President Harris, who gave us testimonies about how they plan to fight the good fight for women of all shapes and sizes.
Derek Cogdell, a 2021 initiate of the Beta Nu chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, attended the event with other members of his chapter.
“Nowadays, we see a lot of these issues come to light, especially with our minority women, and I feel like it’s very important to embrace our minority women through these troubling times,” said Cogdell.
Graduating senior Mia Uzzell is relieved that Harris is making moves at the federal level to ensure that the overturn of Roe v Wade is not the final word for marginalized women.
It’s so important to see Kamala Harris today especially considering the state of our nation. I think it’s so important to see a Black woman advocate for marginalized communities because we don’t have the social mobility to go outside the state and receive healthcare,” said Uzzell.
The FAMU chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) attended the event in numbers. The chapter’s president, Sydney Aitcheson, was pleased with Harris’ push for women’s right to choose to be returned to them. Still, she wishes there was more of a highlight of the specific issues that African American women face in this battle for reproductive rights.
“Vice President Kamala Harris did a phenomenal job expressing her message about the significance of having control over our bodies. I wish, however, that she had addressed African Americans’ rights more thoroughly,” said Aitcheson.
Harris announced at the end of her speech that the Biden administration had issued a presidential memorandum to assist pharmacists, doctors, and other medical professionals in finding avenues to treat their patients with safe and effective medications for people in reproductive dilemmas.
“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, ‘how dare they?'” said Harris.