Abortion Politics and Parkland T-Shirts: A Florida Roundup

Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried and Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book were arrested for participating in an abortion rights protest at City Hall. Fried wore a shirt that said “Just F**k!ng Vote.” The shirt is a fundraising tool for Change the Ref, a nonprofit organization founded by Manuel Oliver, who lost his 17-year-old son Joaquin, at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. The group markets the shirt along with other items to fund voter registration drives and provide materials to effect change through conversation, education, and activism. The protest was organized by Occupy Tally, a coalition of abortion rights groups, and both Book and Fried view their attendance and arrest as a wake-up call for Floridians to oppose an agenda to roll back constitutional rights on abortion access, voting, speech, and to loosen gun regulations and marginalize the LGBTQ+ community.