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By Giulia Carbonaro
Senior Reporter
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Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democrats, and Democrat state Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book were among 11 people arrested on Monday night during protests after Governor Ron DeSantis' new abortion legislation was passed by the state Senate.
Protests erupted outside Tallahassee's City Hall, police said, only hours after the state Senate voted in favor of proposed legislation that would ban abortion in most cases after six weeks. While abortion remains legal in Florida—thanks to recognition by the state's highest court of the right to abortion under the Florida Constitution—the Republican governor and lawmakers have been part of a nationwide GOP-led push for stricter legislation around the procedure at the state level.
The proposed six-week ban—SB300—would further restrict access to abortion in Florida, where a 15-week ban providing no exception for rape or incest is already in place. The 15-week ban was signed into law by DeSantis in April 2022 and went into effect in July, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending 50 years of federal protection of abortion rights across the country.
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The law was one of the most controversial bans in the country in 2022, and the new legislation—which is expected to be approved by the state House and DeSantis in the coming weeks—appears to be just as divisive.
Fried and Book, who joined the peaceful protests on Monday night, were among the demonstrators arrested by police after they had warned them that they couldn't be there after sundown. A statement by the Tallahassee Police Department (TPT) said that protests were only allowed during normal operating hours, but a group of demonstrators had expressed their wish to stay overnight. They were arrested for trespassing "after multiple warnings throughout the day."
According to a spokesperson for TPT, the 11 arrested were taken to a Leon County detention facility, The Washington Post reported.
A video shared on Twitter by Politico reporter Gary Fineout shows protesters—including Fried and Book—being arrested by police and carried away in handcuffs, while the other demonstrators shouted "shame" to the officers and messages of support to those arrested.
Fried, who attended the protest wearing a T-shirt that read "Just f****** vote", shared videos and images of her arrest on her Twitter, saying: I'm out. And not ever backing down. Just f****** vote @FlaDems!!!"
The protest was relatively small, with only about 15 activists remaining on the site after sundown, at 8 p.m., sitting in a circle, according to photojournalist Alicia Devine.
Book joined the protest outside Tallahassee's City Hall after having been vocal about her opposition to the new legislation. On the Senate floor on Monday, she accused state lawmakers of "choosing to give sacs of cells [...] more rights than living, breathing, women and girls in this state. Not just equal rights—more rights. [...] Even the deceased have more rights on their bodies than women and sex. You are choosing to discriminate against women on the basis of sex, because only women are being forced to give their bodies to someone or something without their consent."
She added: "In the course of just two generations, we've seen our rights won and lost. It is up to us to get them back," she said. "No one is going to save us but ourselves."
Newsweek contacted Fried's and Book's representatives for comment.
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