Supporters of a proposal that would enshrine abortion rights in the state Constitution on Monday asked a federal judge to drop the former general counsel of the Florida Department of Health from a legal battle over Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration attempts to stop broadcasters from running TV ads supporting the measure.
The Florida Department of Health earlier this month sent letters to TV stations calling for them to stop running an ad paid for by Floridians Protecting Freedom, the committee sponsoring the proposal.
The letters, signed by former agency general counsel John Wilson, alleged that the ad included false and “dangerous” information and threatened to seek injunctions or possible criminal prosecution against the stations.
Siding with the committee, Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker last week granted a temporary restraining order blocking the DeSantis administration “from taking any further actions to coerce, threaten, or intimate repercussions directly or indirectly to television stations, broadcasters, or other parties for airing” the ads.
Amid the litigation, Wilson resigned from his post, according to an affidavit filed in the lawsuit Monday.
Wilson's affidavit said he did not author the Oct. 3 letters bearing his signature and “did not draft the letters or participate in any discussions” about the missives.
Wilson said he was “directed” to send the letters under his name and on behalf of the state health agency by DeSantis’ general counsel Ryan Newman and Jed Doty, who serves as a deputy general counsel for DeSantis.
Wilson resigned on Oct. 10 “in lieu of complying with directives from Newman and Doty to send out further correspondence to the media outlets,” the affidavit said.
Floridians Protecting Freedom included Wilson's affidavit Monday with a motion to dismiss him as a defendant in the lawsuit.
A spokeswoman for DeSantis called the targeted ads "unequivocally false."
"These current stories all look past the core issue — the ads are unequivocally false and put the lives and health of pregnant women at risk — Florida’s heartbeat protection law always protects the life of a mother and includes exceptions for victims of rape, incest, and human trafficking," DeSantis' deputy press secretary Julia Friedland said in an email Monday.
The Oct. 3 letters alleged that the ad included false and “dangerous” information and threatened to seek injunctions or possible criminal prosecution against the stations.
The controversial ad tells the story of a woman who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer when she was 18 weeks pregnant. Doctors told the woman they could not treat her with chemotherapy or radiation while pregnant, so she had an abortion. The ad asserts that current Florida law, which restricts abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, would prevent abortions in such cases.
The Department of Health letter disputed the assertion, saying that the six-week law includes exceptions to allow abortions to save pregnant women’s lives or to “avert a serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.”
In threatening action against TV stations, the letter cited a law aimed at targeting a “sanitary nuisance,” drawing a harsh rebuke from Walker in Thursday’s ruling.
Walker’s order, issued Thursday, said the ad “is political speech — speech at the core of the First Amendment.” The DeSantis administration “cannot excuse its indirect censorship of political speech by simply declaring the disfavored speech is ‘false,’” the judge wrote.
The restraining order also prohibits state officials from “undertaking enforcement action against” the Floridians Protecting Freedom political committee for running the ads or “engaging in any other speech protected by the First Amendment.”
The lawsuit came amid an intense political battle about Amendment 4, which DeSantis and his administration are fiercely fighting.
DeSantis on Monday held a press conference with dozens of doctors who are opposed to the proposal.
“Here we have a situation where this is something that is really a Pandora’s Box for bad policy. Look, the way this process works in Florida, these groups spend massive amounts of money to get on the ballot and they write the language,” the governor said during an event in Coral Gables.
In part, the proposed constitutional amendment says, no ”law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient's health, as determined by the patient's healthcare provider.”
DeSantis called the proposal, which appears on the November ballot as Amendment 4, "very, very extreme."
"It would make Florida one of the most radical abortion jurisdictions, not just in the United States, but anywhere in the world, if this were to pass,” the governor said.
Floridians Protecting Freedom began pursuing the ballot initiative last year after DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature approved a law largely preventing abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
The DeSantis administration has targeted the proposal in other ways, such as paying for public-service announcements urging a “no” vote on the measure and setting up a webpage warning against it.
In addition, the Florida Department of State’s Office of Election Crimes and Security released a report alleging fraud and illegal activity related to the petition-gathering process for the proposal.
Opponents of the abortion measure filed lawsuits Tuesday seeking to invalidate the proposed amendment, relying heavily on the state’s report. The lawsuits were filed in numerous jurisdictions in state court.
Walker is slated to hold an Oct. 29 hearing in the committee's lawsuit, which sought a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction.
