Florida’s Department of Health general counsel, John Wilson has resigned following his orders to send letters requesting TV stations to stop airing an advertisement in favor of Amendment 4.
Wilson signed letters that threatened Florida TV Stations with criminal penalties if they aired a political ad backing a referendum that would repeal the state’s six week abortion ban. Wilson reported that this directive came straight from Governor Ron DeSantis’ office. Wilson quit to avoid continuing to send these letters as he was instructed, “I resigned from my position as general counsel in lieu of complying with directives from Ryan Newman and Jed Doty to send out further correspondence to media outlets,” wrote Wilson.
The 30-second advertisement in-question features a Floridian mother, named “Caroline,” who had an abortion two years ago after learning that she had brain cancer and being told that chemotherapy would prolong her life, but injure the fetus. She terminated her pregnancy at 18 weeks, a choice that would be illegal under the current six-week ban.
This occurred after Wilson first sent the letters to TV stations airing the advertisement which spurred a media storm of coverage over the sent letters that said the ad was categorically false and constituted as an illegal sanitary nuisance. “Wilson’s letters said the ad was “categorically false” and that it constituted an illegal “sanitary nuisance” under state law,” said the Tampa Bay Times.
After a legal battle, U.S District Judge Mark Walker granted a temporary restraining order for Floridians Protecting Freedom to the state of Florida to temporary stop officials from sending letters to TV stations to take down the political ad, according to USA Today, Walker wrote, “To keep it simple for the State of Florida: It’s the First Amendment, stupid.”
