Florida officials are facing another legal challenge accusing them of interfering with the election by advocating against an amendment to expand abortion rights.
The ACLU of Florida and Southern Legal Counsel filed a joint lawsuit on Thursday on behalf of Floridians Protecting Freedom. They are suing the state Agency for Health Care Administration to "stop the State of Florida's campaign to oppose Amendment 4 through the dissemination of false, inflammatory, and misleading information."
The Florida Supreme Court had agreed to expedite a case involving another lawsuit filed on Tuesday by Palm Beach County attorney Adam Richardson that accuses Gov. Ron DeSantis, along with AHCA Secretary Jason Weida and Attorney General Ashley Moody of abusing state resources to “sully the election for Amendment 4.”
The proposed constitutional amendment will appear on the November ballot. It asks voters to choose whether to allow abortions in Florida until fetal viability, usually around 24 weeks, or when a patient’s health provider deems necessary. Right now abortions in Florida are banned after six weeks of pregnancy with limited exceptions.
“Ending this ban isn't a partisan issue. It's a health care issue,” said Lauren Brenzel, campaigns director for Yes on 4, the group backing the amendment. “Yet the government is trying every dirty trick they can to distract Floridians from these facts.”
Brenzel joined lawyers with the ACLU of Florida for a press call on Wednesday morning to criticize abortion restrictions in Florida and discuss concerns about allegations of election interference by state officials.
At issue are a website and short video that AHCA produced about the six-week restrictions and Amendment 4. The website advises viewers, “Don’t let the fearmongers lie to you” and defends current abortion law in Florida while claiming that the proposed amendment “threatens women’s safety.”
The action by the state health agency appears to violate a Florida law that bars government officials from using their authority or resources to interfere with elections, said Robyn Powell, assistant professor at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport.
“This is, in my opinion, a blatant example, where we do have a government agency trying to essentially sway a vote one way or another,” said Powell.
DeSantis denies any election interference
DeSantis has defended the website.
“You know, we have resources to do public service announcements across a wide variety of fronts — the Department of Transportation, for example, on safe driving,” DeSantis said Monday in Miami Lakes. “It's being used by the AHCA agency to basically provide people with accurate information.”
When pressed on the topic again during a press conference in Lake City on Tuesday, DeSantis said the AHCA messaging prevents proponents of Amendment 4 from “lying to people about Florida law.”
Brenzel has repeatedly said the six-week ban has no “real” exceptions, which state officials say is false. But she counters existing exceptions for rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother are too restrictive and still leave many women unable to access the care they need.
The ACLU lawsuit reiterates that idea, stating, "multiple public cases illustrate that women in Florida are being denied miscarriage treatment and abortions needed to protect their health."
DeSantis and other state leaders who oppose the ballot measure contend its language is too vague and argued the Legislature should set abortion law.
“It [Amendment 4] takes power away from the people to be able to decide this through elections and who they elect to office and who legislates and it effectively puts it in the courts — there will be 25 years’ worth of lawsuits on what any of these terms mean,” he said, referring to words like “viability” and “health” that appear in the ballot summary.
The Florida Supreme Court ruled this year that the ballot language is acceptable. Attorneys like Powell say the wording establishes a similar framework to what Florida has before Roe v. Wade was overturned.
The AHCA website also contains other misleading statements about the possible implications of the amendment, Powell said.
“I don't know what his [DeSantis’] definition of facts are but this is not my definition, you know we're seeing sort of fear-mongering,” said Powell.
The Supreme Court ordered state officials named in Richardson's lawsuit to file a response to his claims by Sept. 23.
Abortion measures in other states also face hurdles
Meanwhile, the state is investigating whether people fraudulently signed petitions to get Amendment 4 on the ballot, with some Floridians reporting law enforcement officers showed up at their homes to question them about signatures they verified. DeSantis claims the state has found evidence that some petition signatures were not valid and said the state has “zero tolerance” for voter fraud.
The deadline in state law to challenge the validity of signatures has long past, and Keisha Mulfort, senior communications strategist with the ACLU of Florida, said the amendment campaign has operated with “full transparency and integrity” throughout the process.
Mulfort called the state’s investigation two months before the election an attempt to intimidate voters.
“We will not be sidetracked by these political games, and our priority remains clear: ensuring that decisions about abortion are left to women in consultation with their doctors who are sworn to act in the best interest of their patients,” Mulfort said.
In the seven states where abortion has appeared on the ballot since the Dobbs decision in 2022, voters have always opted to side in favor of abortion rights. Another 10 states plan to have similar measures on their ballots this year, including eight with citizen-led initiatives like Florida.
Republican officials in Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota have also challenged their states’ proposals in court.
“All of this is part of a broader problem,” said Powell. “Florida is not the only state where we’re seeing this broader pushback. Every single time abortion has been on the ballot since Dobbs, abortion rights have been protected. So we know those who oppose abortion are aware of this fact and they are, in my opinion, intentionally trying to put up roadblock after roadblock.”
Which, especially in the case of citizen-led initiatives, she said, is an "assault on democracy."
Florida has a higher threshold for ballot initiatives to pass than many other states. At least 60% of voters will have to approve Amendment 4 for it to pass.
