Protester scales Miami structure to hang banner calling on Biden to protect abortion rights

MIAMI – As part of a larger pro-abortion rights protest, a man scaled a downtown Miami structure Saturday morning calling on President Joe Biden to do more to protect abortion rights in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Organizers with the group “Bans Off Miami” called their protest “RAGE MIAMI” and marched from the Miami-Dade County Courthouse to Northwest Third Street and Third Court, where the man climbed that steel structure to hang the banner, which reads “S.O.S. BIDEN – THEY WON’T STOP AT ROE.”

It’s easily visible to drivers heading southbound on Interstate 95 near the Southwest Seventh Street/Brickell Avenue exit.

“The wind was really working against me,” the protester, who did not identify himself, said. “That’s what was going through my mind. But, more than anything, the risks are nothing compared to what’s going to happen. It’s disappointing how little the Democrats have done. SOS Biden.”

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Miami police briefly detained the man.

The group says it aims to have President Biden:

• Declare a public health emergency in response to the end of Roe

• Commit to end the Hyde Amendment so that people who use Medicaid and other federal programs aren’t forced to pay out of pocket for abortions

• Rescind a 2010 executive order prohibiting plans in the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace from covering abortion

• Protect access to medication abortion and address the barriers that remain for people of color, including a lack of access to broadband internet for those getting pills online and lack of permanent address to get pills in the mail.