On Wednesday, Floridians Protecting Freedom, the campaign behind a ballot measure (Amendment 4) to enshrine a right to abortion in the state, filed a lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis’ health department, which recently waged a legal harassment campaign against TV stations in the state for airing a pro-Amendment 4 ad. The campaign filed the legal complaint to the U.S. District Court in Tallahassee.
In the ad in question, a Tampa-based mother named Caroline shares her story of having an abortion to save her life after she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. She explains how this is no longer possible under current Florida law, which bans abortion at six weeks unless someone’s life is in imminent danger. “The doctors knew that 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. “Florida has now banned abortion … even in cases like mine. Amendment 4 is gonna protect women like me.”
Earlier this month, DeSantis’ health department sent a letter to WFLA TV warning that the ad is illegal under a Florida law that allows the state to remove any “nuisance” that “threatens or impairs” people’s health. According to the letter, the ad is medically inaccurate and “dangerous” because Florida’s abortion ban has an exception for medical emergencies. That, of course, is bullshit: Doctors and legal experts say these exceptions don’t work in practice. And, in Caroline’s case, if patients have a medical condition like cancer and can’t receive chemotherapy while pregnant, they can be denied emergency abortion care because they’re not imminently dying. Still, the health department’s letter threatened WFLA TV with criminal charges if they didn’t stop airing the ad.
The lawsuit accuses DeSantis’ health department of “using public resources and government authority to advance the State’s preferred characterization of its anti-abortion laws as the ‘truth’ and denigrate opposing viewpoints as ‘lies.’” Floridians Protecting Freedom seeks an injunction to stop Florida from further threats and also seeks “compensatory and punitive damages for this egregious and willful violation of our First Amendment rights.”
According to the complaint, the ad began airing on October 1 on 50 stations across the state. Nearly all of these stations received the same letter from the DeSantis administration, and at least one station has since pulled the ad. In a statement, Lauren Brenzel, campaign director of Floridians Protecting Freedom, accused DeSantis’ administration of leading a “crusade against Amendment 4” that amounts to “unconstitutional government interference.”
The campaign’s lawsuit characterizes the cease-and-desist letters against TV stations as part of an “escalation of a broader State campaign to attack Amendment 4,” which has been unfolding for a full year now, beginning with the state attorney general who, in October 2023, tried to stop the measure from even getting on the ballot.
This week, the DeSantis-appointed Florida secretary of state released a 350-page report of unsubstantiated claims that the Amendment 4 campaign has engaged in widespread election fraud. Critics warn the report is meant to lay the groundwork to disqualify Amendment 4 if it succeeds in November. In September, several Florida voters said DeSantis sent police officers to their homes to question whether their signatures supporting the measure were fraudulent. His taxpayer-funded Agency for Health Care Administration also recently launched a webpage solely to spread disinformation about Amendment 4, and he’s using taxpayer money to bankroll anti-abortion ads attacking the amendment on ESPN, CNN, The Weather Channel, and more.
Polling from the last several weeks continues to show support for Amendment 4, ranging from 46% to 69% of voters, but, under Florida law, the measure will need at least 60% support to pass.
