Eleven people, including some high-profile Democrats, were arrested in Tallahassee on Monday night during a peaceful protest against the proposed six-week abortion ban that is quickly moving through the Florida legislature.
Among those arrested were state Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book (D) and Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried.
Protesters were sitting in a circle, singing “Lean On Me” around 8 p.m. Eastern in front of the Tallahassee City Hall building when around 18 police officers descended from City Hall to handcuff and arrest them, according to several activists and lawmakers at the scene.
The six-week abortion ban passed the Florida Senate on Monday afternoon along party lines, except for two Republicans who voted against the restriction. The Florida House will likely vote on the bill in the next week or two, and the ban would then be on Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) desk sometime this month.
The legislation not only bans abortion at six weeks — a point at which most people don’t realize they’re pregnant — but also bans telehealth for abortion care and allots $25 million annually for deceptive anti-abortion pregnancy centers.
Officers told protesters they were arrested and detained because the group was trespassing after 8 p.m., Book and several other arrested activists told HuffPost.
Two police officers told the activists around 5 p.m. that the director of City Hall had closed the building and that the group needed to vacate the area, the advocates said, adding that there was a sign in the park that stated people could be there until sundown. The activists elected to stay, despite the confusion.
“The Republican legislature seems to be blinded by the power of Gov. DeSantis and his ambitions to run for president,” Fried told HuffPost. “They’re passing one of the most restrictive bans in the entire country on the backs of the women of our state so he can run for president. And we just weren’t going to take it.”
“What’s happening here in Florida isn’t going to stay in Florida.”
- Kate Danehy-Samitz, founder of Women’s Voices for Southwest Florida
Book has loudly supported abortion care in Florida, giving an impassioned speech against the state’s 15-week abortion ban before it passed last session and again on Monday before the six-week ban passed the state Senate.
“I feel a deep sense of responsibility to stand up as the Democratic leader in the Florida Senate who was responsible, quite frankly, for the Senate races that we lost,” she told HuffPost. “Coming back in a superminority … I feel like I had a job to do and it didn’t get done, and so I have to do everything — give up everything that I have — to make sure that women and girls are kept safe.”
The group was booked and detained until around 2:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning. Fried and Book told HuffPost they were released together around midnight.
State Rep. Anna Eskamani (D) was at the jail to help the activists get released. Democratic state Sens. Lori Berman, Jason Pizzo and Linda Stewart were also at the jail working to get all 11 people released.
“Those who are expressing a First Amendment right in opposition to [the six-week abortion ban] have every right to do so. It was unacceptable that they were arrested for peacefully protesting,” Eskamani, who worked at Planned Parenthood for six years before joining the Florida House, told HuffPost.
“This is just another indication that Florida is where freedom goes to die,” she added.
The six-week ban is expected to pass, but will not go into effect until the Florida Supreme Court rules on a challenge to the state’s current 15-week ban on abortion.
Sarah Parker, president of Women’s Voices of Southwest Florida, was another one of the activists arrested Monday night.
“If you are considering arresting us, know that these are mothers. We have children to go home to, including myself,” Parker recalled telling one of the police officers earlier in the day. Six of the 11 arrested were from Women’s Voices of Southwest Florida, one of the main groups behind demonstrations on Monday.
Pro-choice activists from a coalition of groups showed up at the state Capitol building early Monday morning to protest ahead of the full Senate vote on the legislation. Several activists interrupted the floor vote from the galley, shouting pro-choice statements while anti-choice lawmakers spoke.
“Maternal mortality rates are three times higher in states that banned abortion post-Dobbs,” Kat Duesterhaus, the communications director at Florida National Organization for Women, yelled from the gallery before being escorted out.
“Don’t like abortion? Just ignore them, like you do with the 400,000 children in foster care,” another protester shouted. The interruptions caused state Senate President Kathleen Passidomo (R) to clear the public from the gallery before the full vote took place.
The day of demonstrations was organized by Occupy Tallahassee, a coalition of groups that included Women’s Voices of Southwest Florida, Florida NOW, the League of Women Voters, Indivisible Pro-Choice Pinellas and Planned Parenthood’s Bans Off Our Bodies.
Kate Danehy-Samitz, founder of Women’s Voices for Southwest Florida and one of the protesters detained, issued a warning to the rest of the country.
“What’s happening here in Florida isn’t going to stay in Florida,” they told HuffPost. “What Ron DeSantis is doing is using Florida as a stepping stool, as a playbook, for his plans for America. And that’s not an America we can live in. That’s not a free country.”