Lawyer says DeSantis’s office pressured him to send abortion ad letters to TV stations
“A former attorney for the state of Florida says he resigned rather than continue sending cease-and-desist letters, which a federal judge has now called unconstitutional.
Letters that threatened Florida TV stations with criminal penalties if they aired a political ad backing a referendum that would repeal the state’s six-week abortion ban came directly from Gov. Ron DeSantis’s office, according to the attorney who signed and sent them.
Attorney John Wilson said that he resigned as general counsel for the Florida Department of Health rather than “complying with the directives” of DeSantis’s executive staff to send more cease-and-desist letters to TV stations running the ad.
“I did not draft the letters or participate in any discussions about the letters prior to Oct. 3,” Wilson wrote in an affidavit filed in federal court Monday. Instead, he said, three attorneys on the governor’s staff gave him the letters to send.
In an earlier letter, Wilson condemned the actions of the administration. “A man is nothing without his conscience,” Wilson wrote in a resignation letter on Oct. 10 obtained by the Miami Herald. “It has become clear in recent days that I cannot join you on the road that lies before the agency.”
The 30-second ad features a Florida mother, named “Caroline,” who said she had an abortion two years ago after she learned she had brain cancer and was told chemotherapy would prolong her life but also injure the fetus. She terminated her pregnancy at 18 weeks, a choice she said would be illegal under the current six-week ban.
Florida’s abortion law, which was enacted after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, is among the strictest in the nation and has narrow exceptions for the life of the mother. “Caroline” said she chose to have an abortion so she could undergo treatment for her terminal cancer to spend more time with her husband and young daughter.
The letters the state of Florida sent called the ad’s claims “categorically false” and “dangerous.”
Wilson also wrote in the affidavit on Monday that the governor’s office told him to find outside attorneys to “assist with enforcement proceedings” against TV stations that ran the “Caroline” ad.
Efforts to reach Wilson on Monday were unsuccessful. Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group backing the amendment, sued both Wilson and Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo over the letters. The group dropped Wilson from the lawsuit on Monday.
A federal judge last week issued a temporary restraining order to stop the state from sending the threatening letters to broadcasters. Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker said the state’s actions amounted to “unconstitutional coercion” and meant that “any political viewpoint with which the State disagrees is fair game for censorship.”
“To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid,” Walker wrote.
The one station that pulled the ad is running it again, according to Floridians Protecting Freedom.
Reproductive rights proponents have spent months door-knocking and holding rallies in support of Amendment 4, which would enshrine in the state’s constitution the right to abortion up to fetal viability. They have taken pains to cast the amendment as a nonpartisan issue. Early voting began Monday in Florida.
A poll released Monday from the University of North Florida showed that 60 percent of voters supported Amendment 4 — the threshold needed to pass.
Following the Oct. 1 release of the ad, Floridians Protecting Freedom saw its biggest fundraising week since the campaign began after DeSantis signed the six-week ban into law in April 2023. The group collected more than $17 million from Oct. 5-11, bringing its total contributions to $90 million.
Two DeSantis-backed groups fighting Amendment 4 raised $610,000 in the same week, bringing their total to $6.2 million.
The cease-and-desist letters drew rebuke from the head of the Federal Communications Commission.
“The right of broadcasters to speak freely is rooted in the First Amendment,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel wrote in a statement earlier this month. “Threats against broadcast stations for airing content that conflicts with the government’s views are dangerous and undermine the fundamental principle of free speech.”
DeSantis is using taxpayer dollars in other ways to fight against passage of the amendment. The state’s health-care agency launched a website last month that claims the amendment “threatens women’s safety.”
Two weeks ago, the Florida Division of Elections released a report that seeks to cast doubt on some of the nearly 900,000 verified petition signatures that put the amendment on the ballot. Elections police showed up at the homes of some people who signed the petitions, leaving one voter “feeling shaken.”
The letters to TV stations sent on Oct. 3 were on the Florida Department of Health letterhead, with DeSantis and Ladapo’s names at the top.
Florida Department of Health communications director Jae Williams said in an email statement responding to a request for comment, “the fact is these ads are unequivocally false and detrimental to public health in Florida.”
DeSantis’s communications staff did not return requests for comment Monday. DeSantis, speaking at a news conference Monday with a group called “Doctors Against Amendment 4,” said the amendment’s language is “deceptive.”
“The whole campaign are basically things that are just verifiable lies,” DeSantis contended.“
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