Florida Official Says Ron DeSantis Told Him to Threaten TV Stations Over Abortion Ads

“A man is nothing without his conscience," the health department official, John Wilson, wrote in his resignation letter, one week after telling TV stations to stop airing a pro-abortion rights ad or else.

By Kylie Cheung  |  October 21, 2024 | 4:12pm
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Florida Official Says Ron DeSantis Told Him to Threaten TV Stations Over Abortion Ads

A Florida official, John Wilson, has resigned from the state’s health department after alleging that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) directed him to send controversial letters to local TV stations earlier this month, threatening them with criminal charges if they didn’t stop running a pro-abortion rights ad. The Tampa Bay Times obtained his resignation letter and published parts of it on Friday.

“A man is nothing without his conscience. It has become clear in recent days that I cannot join you on the road that lies before the agency,” Wilson wrote. In the same letter, he reveals that DeSantis’ general counsel wrote the letters threatening the TV stations, and “directed me to send them under my name and on behalf of the Florida Department of Health.”

In the ad, which endorses the Amendment 4 ballot measure to enshrine a right to abortion in the state and repeal its six-week ban, a Florida mother named Caroline shares the story of her terminal brain cancer diagnosis, which required her to have an abortion. “The doctors knew if I did not end my pregnancy, I would lose my baby, I would lose my life and my daughter would lose her mom,” she says in the ad. “Florida has now banned abortion even in cases like mine.” The ad began airing on October 1, and Wilson, directed by DeSantis, sent the threatening letters on October 3. At least one TV station temporarily stopped airing the ad as a result.

In the letters, Wilson wrote that Caroline’s ad is inaccurate and dangerous because the state ban has an exception for some medical emergencies. But doctors and legal experts say these exceptions are ineffective in practice, and could still prevent patients like Caroline from receiving emergency care if they have conditions like cancer because they’re not imminently dying.

On Thursday, Floridians Protecting Freedom, the campaign leading the effort for Amendment 4, filed a lawsuit against DeSantis’ administration over the threatening letters. The lawsuit names Wilson as a defendant, but since Wilson’s resignation, he’s been dropped from the suit. On Friday, a federal judge sided with Floridians Protecting Freedom and blocked the DeSantis administration from sending further threats to TV stations for airing the ad. “The government cannot excuse its indirect censorship of political speech simply by declaring the disfavored speech is ‘false,’” the judge wrote. “To keep it simple for the State of Florida: It’s the First Amendment, stupid.”

Threats against Florida TV stations are the tip of the iceberg in DeSantis’ chilling crusade against Amendment 4. Last week, he published a 350-page report of unsubstantiated claims that the Amendment 4 campaign has engaged in widespread election fraud, which seems to be laying the groundwork to disqualify Amendment 4 if it succeeds. In September, Florida voters said DeSantis sent police officers to their homes to question whether their signatures supporting the measure were fraudulent. His administration is also using taxpayer money to bankroll anti-abortion ads attacking the amendment across the state.

Amendment 4 needs 60% of the vote to pass under Florida law. Recent polls show support for the ballot measure ranging from 46% to 69% of voters. The latest polling from October 8 shows Amendment 4 at a dismal 46% support, though a DeSantis administration official told the 19th last week they’ve seen numbers “in that 58 to 62% group.”

Wilson’s resignation, and his blistering letter that characterizes DeSantis’ state-powered efforts against Amendment 4 as a strain on his “conscience,” speak to the dangerous lengths the governor appears willing to go to stop the ballot measure and maintain Florida’s near-total abortion ban.

 
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