John Wilson, normal counsel for the Florida Division of Well being, wrote in a sworn affidavit that officers from Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) workplace pushed him to threaten tv stations with prison prosecutions if they didn’t take down adverts in assist of a Florida abortion rights measure.
Wilson, who resigned from his place on Oct. 10, wrote within the affidavit that he acquired prewritten letters directing him to ship the threatening letters underneath his title on behalf of the Florida Division of Well being.
He stated he acquired the letters on Oct. 3 from Sam Elliot, assistant normal counsel for the chief workplace of the governor. Wilson stated he was additionally directed to ship the letters by Ryan Newman and Jed Jody, two different officers in DeSantis’s workplace.
Wilson did ship the letters, which pressured the TV stations to take down political commercials in assist of Modification 4, a poll measure that, if accepted, would broaden entry to abortion within the state of Florida. The measure, which wants the assist of 60 % of voters to move, would successfully reverse a six-week ban on abortion.
“A man is nothing without his conscience,” Wilson wrote in his resignation letter reported by the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Instances. “It has become clear in recent days that I cannot join you on the road that lies before the agency.”
The Hill has reached out to the DeSantis workplace for remark.
Wilson is now being sued, together with Joseph Ladapo, the Florida surgeon normal and head of the Division of Well being, by Floridians Defending Freedom, the group sponsoring Modification 4. It claims the threatening letters despatched to the tv stations violated their First Modification rights.
The “Sure on 4” commercial contains a lady named Caroline Williams, who was recognized with mind most cancers whereas pregnant and made the choice to have an abortion so she may obtain life-extending most cancers therapy. The advert stated the present ban would have prevented her from having the process.
Florida’s Division of Well being beforehand stated the outline of the legislation within the tv advert is fake and warned TV stations throughout the state it contained false data that violated the state’s “sanitary nuisance laws.”
The poll initiative’s marketing campaign director, Lauren Brenzel, stated in a press release that the division’s letters have been “unconstitutional government interference.”
“The State cannot coerce television stations into removing political speech from the airwaves in an attempt to keep their abortion ban in place,” Brenzel’s assertion stated. “We will continue our campaign in the face of this blatant government interference, but we must remain focused.”
