Miami-Dade mayor joins Wynwood protest in support of abortion protections

WYNWOOD, Fla. – Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava joined a protest on Friday in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood. It was her way of showing that she stands against the Supreme Court’s ruling that got rid of the constitutional protections for abortion.

The mayor was among the dozens who shouted: “Abortion rights are under attack! What do we do? Stand up! Fight back!” The march took over several blocks.

Levine Cava said one way to fight is to vote for candidates who believe women’s right to safe and legal abortion is a fundamental human right that should have legal protections.

“It’s devastating and clearly thank goodness, young women across this country are waking up,” Levine Cava said about the protests on Friday nationwide.

Michelle Isgut, 33, said she was protesting because she couldn’t believe the ruling. Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the final opinion issued Friday that Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision better known as Roe vs. Wade, was wrong and had to be overturned.

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Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett joined Alito. Chief Justice John Roberts didn’t join. Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan dissented.

The decision comes just a day after the Supreme Court ruled to strike down a New York law requiring a need to get a license to carry. Thomas wrote the Constitution protects the “right to carry a handgun for self-defense.” In the dissent, Breyer wrote, “there have already been 277 reported mass shootings — an average of more than one per day.”

“For SCOTUS to issue a ruling on gun rights saying that they can’t leave to the states to regulate, but then to turn around like days, hours later and try to regulate my body like this — It’s unbelievable,” Isgut said during the protest in Wynwood.

Some protesters expressed their opposition to Gov. Ron DeSantis since he signed a bill to implement a statewide 15-week ban on abortions. The crowd chanted, “Vote him out!”

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Nikki Fried, Florida’s 12th Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services, was also at the protest. She is campaigning to be the Democratic candidate to run against DeSantis, but Charlie Crist is in the lead.

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