Did you see the giant IUD balloon in Tampa? This is who’s behind it.

TAMPA — A giant inflatable IUD took center stage among the trees this morning at Lykes Gaslight Square Park.

The advocacy group Americans for Contraception erected the 20-foot-tall contraceptive device as part of their IUD Express campaign tour. The lilac behemoth of a balloon symbolizes the group’s fight for legislation that would protect contraception.

Florida lawmakers such as Rep. Kathy Castor and State Rep. Lindsay Cross, along with reproductive rights advocates, gathered in the park to address what the group calls an “escalating threat from Republican lawmakers and their extremist allies.”

Before the news conference started, women hugged the inflatable, trying to wrap their arms around its bulky base. One was accessorized for the occasion with vagina earrings. Electric air pumps ferociously hummed to keep the two-story structure upright.

Seven speakers stood in front of about a dozen men and women holding signs that read “Contraception is health care” and “Americans for contraception.” The T-shaped contraceptive device, normally inserted into a woman’s uterus, served as a backdrop. An AdventHealth Mobile Mammography truck was parked on the street behind the balloon, a pink breast cancer ribbon peeking out the side of the IUD.

The campaign comes after Senate Republicans, including Florida’s Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, blocked an act on June 5 that would have codified a national right to access contraception. With a 51-39 vote, the Right to Contraception Act fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance the bill. Republicans said they considered the legislation unnecessary since Supreme Court precedent already protects birth control. Florida’s Right to Contraception Act, a similar bill, died at the state level in March.

“That’s exactly what (Republicans) said about abortion,” said Americans for Contraception board member Laura Packard, referring to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022. “So, the Supreme Court could take your rights and freedoms away with a court decision at any day.”

On the day of the Senate vote, the inflatable contraceptive device loomed outside the U.S. Capitol. It accompanied the group to Miami and Orlando earlier this week and has also appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

“We have a giant IUD because this is a massive problem,” said Packard.

Hillsborough County Commissioner Pat Kemp said Scott was “gaslighting” voters, riffing on the Tampa park’s name. “He’s using those millions (of dollars) to gaslight and run ads now, saying he actually supported IVF when he voted against it,” said Kemp, alluding to a social media advertisement he posted on June 14.

Speakers at the news conference encouraged Floridians to vote “yes” on Amendment 4, which would protect abortion in the Sunshine State for up to about 24 weeks after gestation. Voters will have the ability to “restore reproductive freedom,” said Kemp, standing in front of the IUD balloon, what she called “our statue of reproductive liberty.”