TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – After a month of keeping Floridians informed about hurricanes, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is now focusing his official duties on fighting a change to abortion laws and holding a campaign-like rally at state expense two weeks before the election.

DeSantis’ event on Monday, which ended with a prayer from the Archbishop of Miami and the lieutenant governor urging people not to vote like atheists, came after the Health Department’s top lawyer resigned over a letter he wrote which he said the governor’s office forced him to send to television stations to stop a pro-Amendment 4 ad.

“When it comes to constitutional amendments, your standard should always be no,” DeSantis said at the event attended by doctors who opposed the abortion amendment. “You can change the normal guidelines and laws at any time. Once it’s in the constitution, it’s forever. You really have no chance of ever changing. It.”

Shortly before the event, former top Health Department lawyer John Wilson signed an affidavit saying that DeSantis’ lawyers had written a letter under his name and asked him to send it to television stations where they threatened legal action if they continued to air a “Yes on 4” advert.

Wilson said in Monday’s affidavit that he later resigned rather than send more letters. Last week, a judge blocked the department from taking further action to threaten television networks over the ads. Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group that produced the commercial, filed a lawsuit Wednesday over the state’s communications with broadcasters.

“This affidavit exposes state interference at the highest levels. “It is clear that the state is committed to upholding Florida’s unpopular and cruel abortion ban,” Yes on 4 campaign director Lauren Brenzel said in an emailed statement to reporters. “Their extreme attacks on Amendment 4 are an anti-democratic tactic.”

The ballot measure is one of nine similar ones across the country, but the campaign on it is the most expensive yet, with ads costing about $160 million, according to media tracking firm AdImpact. It would require approval from 60% of voters and would override state law that bans abortions in most cases after the first six weeks of pregnancy, before women often realize they are pregnant.

DeSantis’ administration has taken several steps against the ballot measure. At Monday’s event, a large crowd cheered DeSantis’ criticism of the change. The loudest cheer, however, went to Lt. Governor Jeanette Nunez.

After one of the doctors said his opposition to the change was not religious, Nunez said the issue was religious for her.

“We cannot go to church and pray like Christians and turn around and vote like atheists,” Nunez said to a sustained standing ovation.

The event ended with a prayer by Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski.

“We pray … that you will inspire in every heart of the citizens of this great state of Florida a reverence for the work of your hands and renew among your people the willingness to care for and sustain your precious gift of human life,” Wenski said.

A group critical of DeSantis issued a statement condemning the use of state resources to stage the No on 4 event.

“DeSantis continued his weaponization of state government against his own constituents by coordinating a taxpayer-funded press conference with the anti-Amendment 4 political campaign to silence the voices of doctors and patients suffering under Florida’s extreme abortion ban,” said a spokesman for DeSantis Watch Anders Croy.