Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is escalating his efforts to use his office to shut down Amendment 4, a ballot measure to codify a right to abortion in the state, which Floridians will vote on in less than a month. Florida currently enforces a six-week abortion ban, which offers only ambiguous exceptions as doctors warn that the law is preventing them from offering life-saving care.
On Saturday, Florida-based journalist Jason Garcia shared a letter dated October 3 that the Florida Department of Health sent to WFLA TV’s vice president Mark Higgins, in response to an ad about Amendment 4 that the station shared during last week’s vice presidential debate. In the ad, a woman named Caroline shares her story of being unable to receive timely cancer treatment because she was pregnant and couldn’t get an abortion in Florida. “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.”
The DeSantis administration is now trying to intimidate television stations into taking down ads supporting Amendment 4 – the constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would overturn the near-total abortion ban that Ron DeSantis signed into law last year. pic.twitter.com/XIbCCTUfXQ
— Jason Garcia (@Jason_Garcia) October 5, 2024
In its letter to WFLA TV, the state Health Department says the ad is illegal under section 386.01 of state law, which says the state can remove any "nuisance" that "threatens or impairs" people’s health. “The advertisement is not only false; it is dangerous,” the letter reads. The Health Department cites the Florida abortion ban’s ambiguous, ineffective exceptions for medical emergencies to claim that the law doesn’t threaten pregnant people’s lives. Of course, doctors and legal experts say these exceptions don’t work in practice, because pregnancy complications are complex and time-sensitive; if doctors take time to weigh whether they could face criminal penalties for offering care, patients could die or be forced to leave the state. Or, in Caroline’s case, if they 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.
Florida’s near-total abortion ban, which went into effect in May, has upended the state’s health system, not to mention the entire region’s access to a critical health service. In June, the Florida Access Network (FAN) abortion fund said that the average distance their callers now have to travel for abortion is over 900 miles.
Still, the Health Department implored WFLA TV to remove the ad within 24 hours or face legal action to obtain an injunction, and even “criminal proceedings.” In other words, DeSantis is threatening a local television station with potential criminal charges for its speech. Garcia accused DeSantis’ Health Department of “trying to intimidate” WFLA TV. Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern called the letter “one of the most brazen, direct assaults on the First Amendment in recent memory.” Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group sponsoring Amendment 4, said in a letter to local TV stations running their commercial that it's accurate and can't be subject to criminal penalties: "This is not just an unfounded request, it is unconstitutional state action. ... The Department's letter is a flagrant abuse of power and must be rejected."
Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group sponsoring Amendment 4, responds: The ad is true.
"The Department cannot criminalize media outlets running political advertisements with which it disagrees...The Department's letter is a flagrant abuse of power and must be rejected." pic.twitter.com/xhM51irD5e
— Jason Garcia (@Jason_Garcia) October 7, 2024
This intimidation campaign is in line with DeSantis’ ongoing strategy to try and stop Amendment 4. In September, Florida voters said DeSantis had sent police officers to their homes to question whether their signatures supporting the measure were obtained by fraud. Also in September, DeSantis’ taxpayer-funded Agency for Health Care Administration launched a web page with the specific purpose of spreading disinformation about the ballot measure. The web page incorrectly states that Florida’s abortion ban “protects women” and that Amendment 4 “threatens women’s safety.” And, at the same time that DeSantis is harassing a local news station for airing a factually accurate commercial, his administration is using taxpayer funding to bankroll commercials attacking Amendment 4 with anti-abortion lies on ESPN, CNN, Fox News, The Weather Channel, and more.
Just as DeSantis and the Health Department are opting to lie about abortion to sway the election, last month, Jezebel reported on the audio of Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) telling donors that his strategy to combat the ballot measure is, quite simply, to lie. First, Scott suggested the measure is just a Democratic Party psy op to “try to get women out to vote and vote against Republicans.” To combat it, he said, “I talk about how extreme the Democrats are, how they want to have abortion up until the moment before a baby, a nine-month term, by crushing a baby’s skull. They’ve all voted to allow a healthy baby born alive to just cry itself to the death in the corner by starving itself to death.” As always, to be clear, none of that is happening.
These tactics of deception, harassment, and intimidation stem from desperation. Polling from the last several weeks shows strong support for Amendment 4, ranging from 55% to 69% of voters, though the ballot measure will need at least 60% of the vote to succeed under Florida law. In either case, support for Amendment 4 polls significantly higher than support for DeSantis himself. Between sending cops to abortion rights supporters’ doorsteps and harassing local news stations, I can't imagine why!
