First Amendment threatened by antiabortion Florida Department of Health
State agency sent a letter to broadcasters requesting them to remove an ad that supported the proposed ballot initiative.
As Florida’s voters consider whether to support a ballot initiative to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, the Republican administration that governs the commonwealth has sought to do everything possible to prevent its passage.
Most recently, it was revealed by investigative journalist Jason Garcia on X, formerly Twitter, that the Florida Department of Health had sent letters to television stations to get them to stop airing an ad that featured a woman with a brain tumor who needed an abortion. The woman, whose name was Caroline, said that she would lose her life under the current abortion law.
The letter argues that women would leave the state to get abortion care when they could get it in the state under the law’s exceptions for life-saving care.
Shortly after that, the department and Gov. Ron DeSantis received a stern rebuke from Jessica Rosenworcel, the chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission, which oversees broadcasting at the highest level of government. She said that it violated the stations' First Amendment rights.
Last month, DeSantis called on police to interrogate voters who signed a petition for an abortion rights ballot initiative. Several news outlets reported that DeSantis intended to send a special contingent of officers to thousands of voters’ homes before the election. The tactic had its seed planted years ago when the state legislature passed a bill that gave the governor broad discretionary power to the governor to oversee campaigns.
The Office of Election Crimes and Security was established in 2022 after former President Donald Trump's wave of accusations that he was cheated out of a victory in his 2020 campaign. The unit investigates fraud allegations. According to Nikki Fried, chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party, the officers knocked on doors and made people believe they had fraudulently signed the petition. They also came with ten pages of background information on the individual, including past police reports or government-kept information.
Another aspect of DeSantis’ antiabortion resistance is that he’s used a government-funded website for the Agency for Health Care Administration to spread disinformation about the ballot initiative. It describes abortion rights activists as ‘fear-mongers.”
“We must keep Florida from becoming an abortion tourism destination,” the website said.