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Stew Lilker’s

Columbia County Observer

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Op/Ed

Florida NOW Vows to Continue to Fight for a Woman’s Right to Choose

Hand holding sign: Not your body, not your choice, with caption: Florida Now vows to continue to fight. "We will never give up!"
Photo: Mika Malhotra via Unsplash | Columbia County Observer graphic

The recently leaked U.S. Supreme Court decision will set women's reproductive rights and health back over half a century.

The leaked opinion to overturn Roe v Wade flies in the face of what the justices testified in their confirmation hearings, “Roe v Wade is the law.” They lied. Justice Alito’s preliminary opinion is a hard-line position. It says that states can criminalize abortion with no exceptions for rape and incest.

This is an outrageous undoing of a law on the books for 50 years.

It is a deliberate attack on women’s freedom basically by men; it is a terrible and hurtful decision for women and women’s rights; it is a war on women!

We won’t tolerate it. We will fight for abortion in every way possible.

Let’s look at women’s rights: gender equality, access to abortion and birth control are prerequisites. Women have the right to control their own lives – not the government – whether it is a biased Court or State government.

All women need access to affordable birth control and other basic services to have and bring up children when and how it is best for them.

Justice Alito’s parochial preliminary opinion hearkens back to keeping women pregnant and in the kitchen. I have heard from the Far-Right youth, "Get back in the kitchen.''

This decision is also grossly discriminatory. This egregious ruling would disproportionately affect our black, brown, low-income, and disabled neighbors. The middle-class and the wealthy, predominantly white people will be able to go out of state to get abortions.

Abortion access can’t be dependent on the color of your skin, where you live, or how you define your identity.

We will fight even when we lose and then fight again. This isn't over and never will be until abortion and birth control are framed as basic human rights in our nation.

We will never give up!

Debbie Deland is president of Florida Now. Florida NOW’s (National Organization of Women) purpose is to take action through intersectional grassroots activism to promote feminist ideals, lead societal change, eliminate discrimination, and achieve and protect the equal rights of all women and girls.

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