The political committee supporting Amendment 4 worries about the political pressure coming down from Gov. Ron DeSantis after the state threatened TV stations with criminal prosecution for playing pro-abortion rights commercials.
The Department of Health has hired two law firms to follow up on the state’s threats, said Sara Latshaw, the chair of Floridians Protecting Freedom (FPF), in an affidavit filed Friday in FPF’s First Amendment lawsuit in federal court.
“FPF now reviews external communications with an eye towards the threat of criminal prosecution, attempting to consider what statement the State may consider ‘false,’ regardless of whether FPF believes a given statement to be accurate,” Latshaw wrote. “Although FPF will continue to educate voters about Amendment 4 and Florida’s current law, the threat of prosecution is not one that FPF takes lightly.”
FPF is suing Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, the head of DOH, after the health department sent cease and desist letters to the media that were written by DeSantis attorneys. A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order to keep the state from making more threats until the two sides are due in court Tuesday.
The court records also give new insight into WINK-TV’s decision to pull the ads and then resume them again. The CBS affiliate in Fort Myers was the only known station that acquiesced to the state’s demands — at least temporarily.
The ad in the middle of the legal fight features a woman identified only as Caroline who lives in Tampa. A mom and wife, she found out she had fatal brain cancer when she was pregnant with her second child. She had an abortion in her second trimester in order to get life-extending chemotherapy.
“Florida has now banned abortion even in cases like mine,” Caroline said in the commercial.
DeSantis and the state argue that’s not true and say women in Caroline’s situation are allowed to get an abortion.
“Don’t fall for the scare tactics. Our present abortion law protects the lives of the vulnerable women,” said Dr. Ana Verdeja-Perez of Florida Physicians Against Amendment 4 who joined DeSantis at a rally this week.
FPF stands by the ad and says it’s a reality under Florida’s abortion ban.
Florida currently has a six-week abortion ban in most pregnancies, which abortion rights advocates call one of the most extreme policies in the country. There are exceptions — if incest, sex trafficking and rape survivors can get documentation to prove their crimes, they can get abortions up to 15 weeks — or to save the mother’s life. But doctors in support of Amendment 4 say Florida’s new ban that went into effect in May creates uncertainty and pressure on the medical community not to help women.
Claiming the Caroline ad was false and harmful to the public, the state sent cease and desist letters to TV stations. After after the cease and desist letter dated Oct. 3 were sent, WINK-TV kept playing the ad — including four times Oct. 4, three times Oct. 8, and then seven times Oct. 14, and four time times on Oct. 16, according to a court affidavit from Jae Williams, DOH communications director.
FPF filed the lawsuit Oct. 16.
Latshaw said she did not initially know WINK-TV resumed playing the ad again in mid-October.
“My understanding is that WINK-TV took down ‘Caroline’ as a result of the department’s letter. The advertisement reservation had been booked and fully paid when WINK-TV took it down; WINK-TV did not indicate it was open to putting the advertisement back up until conducting a ‘legal review’ and speaking with FPF’s counsel,’” said Latshaw, ACLU of Florida’s Deputy Political Director, in the court affidavit. “The advertisement was down for five days when it should have otherwise been airing when Florida voters were casting their ballot.”
Attorney General Ashley Moody defended the state’s cease and desist letters and said they were appropriate to send given the situation. She also downplayed the impact of the state’s letters.
“In the aftermath of these letters, it appears that only one television station — WINK-TV in Fort Myers — stopped airing FPF’s false claim about the availability of lifesaving medical services. It is unclear from the evidence in the record why this occurred,” Moody wrote in a court filing.
Meanwhile FPF accusing the state of infringing on its right to Freedom of Speech argued, “while the Department baldly speculates there could be other reasons that WINK-TV stopped airing ‘Caroline,’ There is no plausible explanation for WINK-TV’s conduct other than as a response to the Department’s threat.”
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