Reproductive Rights At Forefront Of FIU Rally
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Reproductive rights were at the forefront at a rally at Florida International University Wednesday afternoon.
Students and Planned Parenthood supporters held the event to stop what they call 'dangerous anti-women's health legislation' and stand up for access to abortions in Miami-Dade County.
Students rallying urged classmates to put pen to paper and spell out to Congress what defunding would mean to women.
"Planned Parenthood has been there whether it's for pap smears, cervical cancer screening and over 90 percent of our funds goes to STD testing and education and all these services for young women like myself," said FIU sophomore Lai Eng.
The rally held at FIU's Pit in the Student Union building moved to U.S. Representative Carlos Curbelo's office where participants delivered #IStandWithPP postcards with written requests to stop ant-abortion legislation recently filed by Florida's Republicans. The congressman was not in but an employee at the office took them.
President Donald Trump and Republican leaders support ending federal funding for Planned Parenthood because they provide abortions but medical student Joseph Ottolenghi says the poorest women will be hurt.
"Women of color, Hispanic women, women who do not have the resources and the time and the money to get to other health centers, " he said.
The group holding the rally says the bills are a way to shame women who try to get an abortion and infringe on reproductive freedoms.
Some bills recently filed include measures that could ban abortion 20 weeks after conception and allow women to sue doctors years after getting an abortion.