A federal judge in Florida on Thursday ordered the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) to stop threatening television stations with criminal charges for airing a specific political ad in favor of the ballot initiative for an abortion rights amendment.
The judge ruled that the administration, which has justified its actions as preventing medical misinformation, was abridging freedom of speech.
DeSantis has been a staunch opponent of Amendment 4, which would enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution, and has been accused of leveraging the power of the state to challenge the ballot initiative.
Judge Mark Walker, appointed to the Federal District Court in Tallahassee by former President Barack Obama in 2012, granted a temporary restraining order against the DeSantis administration, calling the threats against TV stations from the Florida Department of Health tantamount to “viewpoint discrimination” and “unconstitutional coercion.”
Walker’s order was issued following an emergency hearing Thursday after the abortion-rights group behind Amendment 4, Floridians Protecting Freedom, filed suit against the DeSantis administration Wednesday.
“The government cannot excuse its indirect censorship of political speech simply by declaring the disfavored speech is ‘false,’” wrote Walker in his 17-page opinion. “To keep it simple for the state of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid.”
The 30-second TV ad in question features Caroline Williams, who was 20 weeks pregnant when she was diagnosed with stage four brain cancer. Williams claimed in the video that the Florida abortion ban would have prevented her from terminating her pregnancy to receive cancer treatment, meaning that her first child would lose her mother.
The Florida Supreme Court upheld this April the state’s six-week abortion ban, signed by DeSantis in April 2023. There are exceptions to the restriction for rape, incest, and fatal fetal anomaly, as well as to save the woman’s life or prevent serious physical harm.
Since the law took effect this May, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration has been vocal in explaining to healthcare providers that they should exercise “medically appropriate” judgment when a pregnancy threatens the mother’s health.
A spokesperson for the DeSantis Administration told the Washington Examiner that Williams would have been able to terminate her pregnancy in order to save her life under the six-week abortion ban.
“Yes On 4 backers are also playing politics with women’s lives,” said the spokesperson. “The ad’s dishonest premise–that pregnant women are not allowed to seek medical care if their pregnancy poses life-threatening complications–could deter a pregnant woman who is facing a health crisis from going to the doctor for medical interventions she needs to survive.”
Anti-abortion advocates who support gestational age limits for the procedure have said medical emergency exceptions are sufficient, arguing that medical misinformation and confusion among healthcare providers have jeopardized patient safety.
It was reported in September that Candi Miller , a Georgia mother, died from abortion pill complications in 2022 following the implementation of the state's six-week abortion ban. Miller’s family told the coroner that she obtained abortion pills online because her pregnancy was life-threatening with her chronic conditions, but she did not seek medical help for fear of prosecution, which legal experts say would not have occurred.
A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Health told the Washington Examiner that Yes On 4’s ad is “unequivocally false and detrimental to public health in Florida.”
“The media continues to ignore the truth that Florida’s heartbeat protection law always protects the life of a mother and includes exceptions for victims of rape, incest, and human trafficking,” said the Florida DOH spokesperson.
“The court has affirmed what we’ve known all along: The government cannot silence the truth about Florida’s extreme abortion ban,” Yes On 4 Campaign Director Lauren Brenzel told the New York Times on Thursday.
Anti-abortion advocates in Florida on Wednesday filed suit against Floridians Protecting Freedom and several county supervisors of elections, alleging that the abortion-rights campaign has engaged in widespread voter fraud to even get the initiative on the ballot next month.
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If the process of getting the amendment on the ballot is deemed invalid by the courts, then the lawsuit may entirely invalidate the results of the vote on the amendment.
Florida requires a 60% majority of voters to approve ballot measures to pass a constitutional amendment, but polling data from a New York Times/Siena poll earlier this month found that only 46% of Floridians said they planned to support the abortion rights amendment at the ballot box.
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