The Florida health department has fired off cease-and-desist letters to local news stations over an advertisement urging people to vote in favor of a ballot measure that would expand abortion rights in the state.
In the ad, a woman identified as Caroline from Tampa, Florida, talks about being diagnosed with brain cancer while pregnant. The state currently bans abortion past roughly six weeks of pregnancy.
“The doctors knew if I did not end my pregnancy, I would lose my baby, I would lose my life, and my daughter would lose her mom,” she says. “Florida has now banned abortion even in cases like mine.”
She then urges viewers to vote “yes” on a Florida ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution and restore access to the procedure, which was dramatically curtailed when the six-week ban went into effect in May of this year.
John Wilson, general counsel for the Florida department of health, called the claim that women can’t get life-saving abortions in Florida “categorically false” in letters to local news stations, which were first reported by the journalist Jason Garcia and the news outlet Florida Politics.
“The advertisement is not only false; it is dangerous,” Wilson wrote. “Women faced with pregnancy complications posing a serious risk of death or substantial and irreversible physical impairment may and should seek medical treatment in Florida.”
Although Florida, like every other state with an abortion ban, permits abortions in cases of medical emergencies, doctors across the country have said that these bans are worded so vaguely and with such little regard for medical realities that they are unworkable in practice. Instead, doctors facing the threat of criminal prosecution for violating the bans say they have been forced to delay women’s care until they are sick enough.
On Tuesday, Jessica Rosenworcel, the Federal Communications Commission chair, condemned the cease-and-desist letters.
“The right of broadcasters to speak freely is rooted in the first amendment,” Rosenworcel said in a statement. “Threats against broadcast stations for airing content that conflicts with the government’s views are dangerous and undermine the fundamental principle of free speech.”
Dozens of women have come forward with stories of being denied medically necessary abortions. In August, a New York state doctor told the Guardian that she had treated a woman with an ectopic pregnancy – which is nonviable and potentially life-threatening if left untreated – who had been turned away from a Florida emergency department.
Over the last several weeks, civil rights and fair election groups have become increasingly alarmed by efforts by Florida’s rightwing government – led by its Republican governor, Ron DeSantis – to undermine the state’s ballot measure. Law enforcement officials have investigated voters who signed a petition to get the measure onto the ballot, while a state agency has posted a website attacking the measure.
Abortion-related ballot measures have passed in a number of states since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, but Florida’s measure needs to garner 60% of the vote to pass – and the support for the measure currently appears to be well short of that threshold, a recent New York Times/Siena College poll found.
Nine other states are also set to vote on abortion-related ballot measures on election day in November.
