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A Florida official says he resigned over DeSantis’ office’s efforts to stop abortion ads on television
Utah

A Florida official says he resigned over DeSantis’ office’s efforts to stop abortion ads on television

The The Florida Department of Health lawyer who sent cease-and-desist letters to television stations over an abortion-rights ad claims he had no role in drafting those letters — and that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ deputies actually wrote them and then instructed him to send them under his name.

John Wilson, who was the Health Department’s general counsel until Oct. 10, said in an affidavit filed Monday that he received the drafts directly from DeSantis’ office and that the office’s lawyers “instructed me to receive them under my name.” on behalf of the Florida Department of Health.”

The ad in question promotes Amendment 4, a ballot initiative in the November election that would enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution. The ad features a woman who says she was diagnosed with brain cancer while pregnant with her second child.

“The doctors knew that if I didn’t terminate my pregnancy, I would lose my baby, my life and my daughter would lose her mother,” she says. “Florida has now banned abortions even in cases like mine.”

Letters from the Department of Health called the advert “false” and “dangerous” and warned TV stations that they could be prosecuted if they continued to air it. Floridians Protecting Freedom, the organizers of Amendment 4 and the ad, has disputed claims that the ad is false and called the cease-and-desist letter a “blatant abuse of power.”

Wilson resigned a week after the letters were published. In his resignation letter, obtained by the Tampa Bay Times, he writes: “A man is nothing without his conscience. In the last few days it has become clear that I cannot accompany you on the path that lies ahead of the agency.

Wilson said in his affidavit that he resigned to avoid having to send further cease-and-desist letters to the media.

Wilson said in his affidavit that he resigned to avoid having to send further cease-and-desist letters to the media. The affidavit was filed as part of a federal lawsuit filed by Floridians Protecting Freedom over the DeSantis administration’s efforts to counter the ad, and names Wilson and Florida’s surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Lapado, as defendant.

Last week, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against Lapado, writing: “The government cannot excuse its indirect censorship of political speech simply by declaring the disapproved speech ‘false.'” … To put it simply for the state of Florida hold: It’s the First Amendment, stupid.”

In a statement, the Department of Health claimed the ad was “clearly false.”

DeSantis and his fellow Republicans have waged an intense campaign against Amendment 4. The ballot measure would protect access to abortion until fetal viability, essentially overturning the state’s six-week ban. DeSantis said that passage of the amendment would mean “the end of the pro-life movement.”

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