The “IUD Express” Tour arrived in Orlando with a 20-foot plus inflatable IUD to protect contraception rights.
The Americans for Contraception event aimed to promote awareness, education, and advocacy about the urgent need to protect intrauterine devices (IUDs) and other contraceptives amid what they say is the escalating threat from Republican lawmakers and their extremist allies.
The Orlando event featured the now famous 20-foot plus inflatable IUD, which stood outside the U.S. Capitol on the day of the Senate vote. The inflatable IUD has become a symbol of the fight to protect contraception rights has toured the country and featured on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Speakers at the local Central Florida event included Congressman Maxwell Frost, State Rep. Anna Eskamani, State Rep. Johanna López, Sarah Henry, Community Advocate, and Marsha Summersill, Attorney & Family Advocate. Attendees had the opportunity to participate in interactive sessions to learn about the threat to contraception, find out how their elected officials voted on the Right to Contraception Act, and discover steps they can take to defend the right to contraception.
“We’re here because we believe in healthcare for all people,” said Orlando Congressman Maxwell Frost. “When we talk about IVF, access to contraception, and bodily autonomy – that is healthcare. I don’t care if you’re Democrat, Republican, or independent. This is about access to healthcare for everybody.”
“The reality is that women from all backgrounds not only want access to contraception, but deserve access to contraception,” said Orlando progressive State Rep. Anna Eskamani. “This is not just about preventing pregnancy. Many people need contraception as a healthcare prescription to save their lives. Contraception is medication. We must push back against the extremism that is working to take contraception away from us.”
“Access to contraception is a cornerstone of women’s healthcare, enabling them to make decisions about their bodies and futures,” said Democratic State Rep. Johanna López. “Taking away access to contraception is an affront to the values of compassion and equality that we as Floridians hold dear. I urge my colleagues and constituents to stand with me in condemning these actions and to advocate for policies that support, rather than hinder, the rights and health of our families.”
“We speak to people who are worried that their daughter who is going through IVF to have a desperately wanted child will not only not have access in the future to the IVF care that she desperately wants, but, more critically, may not have access to the emergency care that she may desperately need,” said Sarah Henry, Community Advocate. “Policies that deny us access to contraception are not popular and are not morally just.”
“Contraception is healthcare,” said Marsha Summersill, Attorney & Family Advocate. “For individuals to write laws or refuse to sign laws that provide healthcare to individuals is unacceptable. For someone to dictate how and what to do to your body or deny access to this critical medication is unacceptable.”
In a stark blow to reproductive rights, on June 5th, U.S. Senate Republicans blocked the passage of the Right to Contraception Act. Despite strong public support from eight in ten voters and the urgent need to protect Americans’ reproductive freedoms, nearly every Republican Senator, including Florida Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, voted against this critical legislation that would have codified the right to birth control pills, IUDs, emergency contraception, and other contraceptive methods.
This defeat echoed the opposition in Tallahassee, where Republican lawmakers blocked Florida’s Right to Contraception Act, demonstrating a coordinated right-wing effort to undermine reproductive rights across the country.
