Monday, January 23, 2023

'We need to turn this around': About 1,500 turn out for VP speech on abortion in Tallahassee


Douglas Soule and Christopher Cann, Tallahassee Democrat
Sun, January 22, 2023 

TALLAHASSEE — Hours before Vice President Kamala Harris gave her Tallahassee speech on the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade on Sunday, hundreds of people stood in the rain, waiting in line.

Some of them traveled a long way to be there. They told the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida that they were bused in from around the state.

Molly Henry, a volunteer with Planned Parenthood in Sarasota, came to Tallahassee via bus with one of her children. They left around 4:30 a.m. and arrived at 9.

"I don't want to go back," Henry said of the landmark abortion rights case that was overturned in June by the Supreme Court. "My mother had a back alley abortion in 1950."

Laura Rodriguez, a 58-year-old member of the National Council for Jewish Women, drove from Miami to Tallahassee for the various pro-abortion events around the capital city.

"We need to turn this around," she said. "Abortion is a religious right."

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Then there were the locals, like Kassidy Caride, a public health graduate student at Florida State University.

“I don’t think it’s right,” Caride said about the 15-week abortion ban Florida passed last year. “There’s why we’re here. Everyone should have the right to choose.”

By a little before 11 a.m., hours after the line began, only one anti-abortion counter protester was in sight. That woman is retired Tallahassee resident Helena Sims.

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Sims, wearing a rain jacket and hefting a "CHOOSE LIFE" sign, said she was expecting more counter protesters but explained it was difficult to find information about the event.

"There's another side to the story of 'my body, my choice,'" Sims said. "And that's the baby."

While law enforcement estimate about 1,500 attended the speech at the Moon, the rain appears to have washed out a planned abortion rights march that was to coincide with the speech.



Initially, Planned Parenthood posted to its website that "we'll be joined by VP Harris" at the "Bigger Than Roe: National Day of Action" abortion rights march, organized by Women's March. As of Sunday morning, a message flashed on the site that said "Sorry, this event has reached capacity."

An organizer told the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida that the protest is going to take place as a totally separate event on Apalachee Parkway just outside the Ross shopping center and will happen with whoever comes, weather permitting.

USA Today Network-Florida government accountability reporter Douglas Soule is based in Tallahassee, Fla. 

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: VP Kamala Harris' Roe v. Wade speech draws long lines amid heavy rain

VP Kamala Harris announces Biden White House memo protecting access to reproductive services



Christopher Cann, Tallahassee Democrat
Sun, January 22, 2023

On 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, President Joe Biden said he intends to sign a presidential memorandum to consider "efforts to protect access to reproductive healthcare services."

Vice President Harris announced the presidential memorandum at a speech in Tallahassee, just miles away from the state Capitol where Florida’s Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis passed a ban last year on abortion after 15 weeks.

The memorandum will push Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), "to consider new guidance to support patients, providers, and pharmacies who wish to legally access, prescribe, or provide mifepristone—no matter where they live," according to the White House.



Additionally, the memorandum will explore considerations to ensure that patients "can access legal reproductive care, including medication abortion from a pharmacy, free from threats or violence."

What does overturning Roe mean? A breakdown of the Supreme Court's abortion ruling

Read full memoradum:
President Biden to Sign Presidential Memorandum on Ensuring Safe Access to Medication Abortion

"The President has long made clear that people should have access to reproductive care free from harassment, threats, or violence," read Biden's statement from the White House. "Pharmacies should be treated no differently."

Harris will discuss next steps in the fight for reproductive rights and "reinforce the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to protecting access to abortion, including medication abortion," according to a White House press briefing.

Biden to issue memorandum to protect access to abortion pills



Alex Gangitano
THE HILL
Sun, January 22, 2023 

President Biden will issue a presidential memorandum that will further protect access to medication abortion by ensuring doctors can prescribe and dispense it across the United States to mark 50 years since the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.

Vice President Harris will announce the memorandum on Sunday in remarks in Florida for the anniversary.

“Members of our Cabinet and our Administration are now directed to identify barriers to access and recommend actions to make sure that: doctors can legally prescribe, doctors can dispense, and women can secure safe and effective medication,” Harris will say, according to speech excerpts.

The memorandum will direct the secretary of Health and Human Services, along with the attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security, to consider new guidance to support patients, providers and pharmacies that want to access, prescribe or provide mifepristone legally.

Mifepristone, which is a Food and Drug Administration-approved drug used in medication abortion, has become an increasingly common method for ending pregnancies, especially in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. It accounts for more than half of all abortions in the country.

The memorandum will also ensure patients know their right to access reproductive health care, including medication abortion from a pharmacy.

Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it will allow U.S. retail pharmacies to offer abortion pills directly to patients with a prescription in states where abortion is legal. Medication abortion has been available in the U.S. since 2000, when the FDA approved the use of mifepristone, but many states with strict abortion bans also limit the availability of mifepristone, either through restrictions on who can prescribe and dispense the pill or outright bans.

Harris’s speech on Sunday will focus on the next steps the administration will take to fight for reproductive rights, according to a fact sheet from her office. She is set to call out Republicans for actions to restrict abortion access, including Republicans in Congress who have called for a national ban on abortions.

“The right of every woman in every state in the country to make decisions about her own body is on the line. Republicans in Congress are now calling for an abortion ban at the moment of conception nationwide. How dare they?” Harris is expected to say.

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