Monday marked the two year anniversary of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. Its reversal triggered abortion restrictions across the country, including a now six-week ban on abortion in Florida.
About 30 people in Gainesville marched on Monday to mark the anniversary and to call for increased access to abortion.
One of those people was Linda Hoff. She’s 75 years old and for the second time in her life, she’s protesting for more reproductive rights. While marching down University Avenue, she reflected on what life was like before Roe.
“In high school, there was a lady, a young woman my age, another student, who had gotten pregnant. And back then, it was anathema to be pregnant. It still isn't good, but back then it was, she was voted off the island, you know, it was just, she was ostracized. She had to get a back-alley abortion. She nearly died.
And when she finally did come back to classes, and I'm not proud of this, we still ostracized her because she was one of those ladies, right? Thank God in this day and age, we have more control of our bodies and what we can do and say and how to express ourselves, which I think is awesome. We need to make sure that we have that for all of us. That's why I'm here,” said Hoff.
Hoff eventually needed services herself for what turned out to be an ectopic pregnancy – where the fertilized egg grows outside the uterus and can’t survive. Hoff’s doctor sent her to a women’s clinic for an exam.
“I was married. We were going to have a child. I had complications. I had to walk into the clinic through this line of two people on either side of the sidewalk, not knowing what was going on with my body, except that I was in trouble in terms of pain, and something bad was going on.
"And these folks were trying to stop me from going into the clinic and spitting on me. I mean, you haven't lived until you've had somebody angrily spit on you, in your face, on your shoulders,” Hoff said. “I mean, I protested the Vietnam War years ago, and we did silent vigils for peace. I would never think, I would never think of spitting on another person.”
Hoff said the doctor discovered her abdomen was filled with blood because of the ectopic pregnancy. She was rushed to the hospital, where she spent several days recovering.
“I was at the march two years ago, during which I was marching next to a woman my own age and I said to her, ‘Who would ever thought we’d be here again marching to enforce and allow abortion rights?’ and she goes, ‘I did. I watched them try to dismantle it for all these years’. We have to be vigilant. I wasn’t but I am now,” said Hoff.
The march was one of five in Florida organized by Women’s March, a nonprofit that organized the March on Washington in 2017.
Advocates on both sides of the debate are gearing up for the general election in November where abortion will be on the ballot as Amendment 4.
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