Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) administration is reportedly trying to intimidate television stations into taking down advertisements put out by supporters of Amendment 4 — a proposal on the ballot in Florida this fall that seeks to codify abortion access into the Sunshine State constitution, where abortion is banned after six weeks, reported Talking Points Memo.
On Oct. 3, DeSantis’ Department of Health sent a letter to
at least one local NBC affiliate, WFLA-TV, suggesting they could face criminal
charges for airing ads that encourage voters to support Amendment 4.
Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group sponsoring
Amendment 4, responded
to the Health Department’s letter with one of their own, addressed to the
local news station.
“The Department cannot criminalize media outlets running political advertisements with which it disagrees,” they wrote in the letter they shared with TPM. “Such advertisements are not a ‘sanitary nuisance.’ They do not expose the stations running the advertisements to criminal sanction. Speech criticizing the government in the context of a political campaign is the lifeblood of democracy and lies at the very heart of the First Amendment’s protections. The Department’s letter is a flagrant abuse of power and must be rejected.”
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