DeSantis administration threatens native TV station for airing abortion rights marketing campaign adverts

Ron DeSantis’s administration has appeared to threaten an area TV station with authorized motion for airing an abortion rights marketing campaign advert.

The advert in query is similar one which aired in Florida during the vice presidential debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance. It includes a girl named Caroline who wanted to have an abortion and most cancers remedies after a mind tumor analysis in 2022.

Such a tough state of affairs would have been difficult by Florida’s six-week abortion ban today.

“The medical doctors knew that if I didn’t finish my being pregnant, I might lose my child, I might lose my life, and my daughter would lose her mother,” the lady says. “Florida has now banned abortion … even in instances like mine. Modification 4 is gonna defend girls like me.”

The letter — dated October 3 and despatched by the Florida Division of Well being to WFLA TV’s vice chairman Mark Higgins — was shared on social media by journalist Jason Garcia, who accused the administration of “attempting to intimidate” the TV station.

The DeSantis administration had beforehand been accused of using his election police dragnet to target citizens who signed a petition that efficiently put Modification 4 on November’s ballots.

Florida is one in all several states with reproductive rights on the ballot this November. If handed, Modification 4 would enshrine the appropriate to abortion care within the state’s structure, successfully overturning the six-week ban.

The division claims the advert is prohibited beneath part 386.01 of Florida regulation that permits the state to take away any “nuisance” that “threatens or impairs” folks’s well being.

“The commercial is just not solely false; it’s harmful,” the letter reads.

The Well being Division stated that if the advert is just not eliminated inside 24 hours, the division will provoke authorized proceedings to acquire an injunction.

Critics have accused the state authorities of “fascism” and attempting to silence political rivals.

Leon County Democrats responded: “Outrageous bullying utilizing the federal government. Pure fascism.”

“Floridians, THIS is just not democracy!” stated Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Celebration. “We don’t reside in a free state, free of presidency interference, free of presidency intimidation and free of presidency overreach.”

“The DeSantis regime is threatening TV stations with prosecution for operating adverts supporting abortion rights and Modification 4,” added former state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, who’s operating for the state Senate. “Florida is just not a free state.”

Modification 4 would codify the appropriate to an abortion at any level earlier than fetal viability, and forestall legal guidelines within the state from limiting entry earlier than that time. It might additionally stop legal guidelines from interfering with abortions after that time within the being pregnant if essential to “defend the affected person’s well being”.

Florida’s ban on abortion at roughly six weeks of pregnancny — earlier than many ladies know they’re pregnant — is among the many most extreme anti-abortion legal guidelines within the nation.

It got here into impact this previous Might after the Supreme Courtroom revoked a constitutional proper to abortion by overturning Roe vs Wade in 2022.

Florida’s six-week ban, like its 12-week predecessor, has exceptions for ladies whose lives are endangered by their pregnancies, however hospitals and medical suppliers have been hesitant to check such exceptions.

The Unbiased has requested remark from the Florida Division of Well being and WFLA TV.