Florida’s Department of Health (DOH) sent a cease-and-desist letter to all local television stations that have aired a deceptive political advertisement about abortion Amendment 4 containing what the agency says is “false” information about Florida’s current pro-life law.
The 30-second advertisement features a woman named Caroline who chose to have an abortion after being diagnosed with brain cancer. She suggests Florida’s current six-week “heartbeat” law would have prevented her from getting the necessary treatment to save her life and that Amendment 4 would “protect” women like her.
Authored by DOH General Counsel John Wilson, the letter stated it is “categorically false” to claim that Florida’s six-week abortion ban prohibits abortions to preserve the lives and health of pregnant women.
Quoting Florida law, Wilson wrote, “After six weeks, an abortion may be performed if ‘two physicians certify in writing, in reasonable medical judgment, the termination of the pregnancy is necessary to save the pregnant woman’s life.”’ Florida’s abortion statute also states “if preserving the life and health of the fetus conflicts with preserving the life and health of the pregnant woman, the physician must consider preserving the woman’s life and health the overriding and superior concern.”
In addition to being false, the DOH noted the advertisement is also “dangerous” because it could lead women to believe that life-saving or health-preserving treatment is unavailable for pregnant women in Florida. The DOH’s letter advises the television stations that the advertisement could “foreseeably” lead women to travel out of state for medical care, seek emergency care from unlicensed providers, or not seek medical care at all. The advertisement could lead to actions that “threaten both the lives and health of pregnant women” even when the current law protects them.
Wilson informed the television stations that “any act” that threatens or impairs the life or health of an individual violates the state’s “sanitary nuisance law” and that the stations may be committing a second-degree misdemeanor by airing the advertisement.
The letter concluded, “While your company enjoys the right to broadcast political advertisements under the First Amendment…that right does not include free rein to disseminate false advertisements which, if believed, would likely have a detrimental effect on the lives and health of pregnant women in Florida.”
According to FCC records, the stations are still airing the advertisement.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver stated, “While television stations have a First Amendment right to speak, that right does not extend to false and dangerous information about a ballot initiative designed to amend the Florida Constitution.”
