A group campaigning for a Florida abortion rights ballot measure sued state officials Wednesday over their order to TV stations to stop airing one ad produced by the group, Floridians Protecting Freedom.
The state's health department, part of the administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, told TV stations this month to stop airing the commercial, asserting that it was false and dangerous and that keeping it running could result in criminal proceedings.
The group said in its filing in U.S. District Court in Tallahassee that the cease-and-desist letters were part of a campaign to attack the amendment proposal “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.’ ”
The health department did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment. Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, who heads the department, and its former general counsel, John Wilson, were named in the filing, which seeks to block the state from initiating criminal complaints against stations airing the ad.
The group has said that the commercial started airing Oct. 1 on about 50 stations. All or nearly all of them received the state's letter and most kept airing the ad, the group said. At least one pulled the ad, the lawsuit said.
Also, John Wilson, the health department’s top attorney who signed the cease-and-desist letters, resigned last week. According to the Miami Herald, Wilson suggested in his resignation letter he was uncomfortable with decisions taken by the agency.
Wilson, who worked with the state for 14 years, had been general counsel with the health department since 2022, the Herald reported.
Wednesday's filing is the latest in a series of legal tussles between the state and advocates for amendment, which would protect the right to abortion until fetal viability, considered to be somewhere past 20 weeks. It would override the state's ban on abortion in most cases after the first six weeks of pregnancy.
The state attorney general tried to keep the measure off the ballot and advocates unsuccessfully sued to block state government from criticizing it. Another legal challenge contends the state's fiscal impact statement on the measure is misleading.
Last week, the state also announced a $328,000 fine against the group and released a report saying a “large number of forged signatures or fraudulent petitions” were submitted to get the question on the ballot.
Eight other states have similar measures on their Nov. 5 ballot, but Florida’s campaign is shaping up as the most expensive. The nation's third most populous state will only adopt the amendment if at least 60% of voters support it. The high threshold gives opponents a better shot at blocking it.
The ad features a Tampa woman describing how she was diagnosed with brain cancer when she was 20 weeks pregnant, ahead of state restrictions that would have blocked the abortion she received before treatment.
“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,” Caroline Williams said.
In its letters to TV stations, the state says that assertion made the ad “categorically false” because abortion can be obtained after six weeks if it’s necessary to save a woman’s life or “avert a serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.”
But the group says that exception would not have applied here because the woman had a terminal diagnosis. Abortion did not save her life, the group said; it only extended it.
The chair of the Federal Communications Commission blasted Florida's action in a statement last week.
“The right of broadcasters to speak freely is rooted in the First Amendment. Threats against broadcast stations for airing content that conflicts with the government’s views are dangerous and undermine the fundamental principle of free speech,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel wrote.
