TALLAHASSEE — As Gov. Ron DeSantis and his allies continue to attack a ballot proposal aimed at enshrining abortion rights in the state Constitution, his administration pushed back in a legal battle about the state’s efforts to block a television ad supporting the measure. Attorneys for the administration on Tuesday filed a document accusing the Floridians Protecting Freedom political committee, which is sponsoring what appears as Amendment 4 on the November ballot, of “intentionally spreading false factual information” about a state law restricting abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
Floridians Protecting Freedom filed the federal lawsuit after the state Department of Health sent threatening letters to television stations running the commercial, which the department said posed a public “health nuisance.” The lawsuit alleged the letters, signed by former Department of Health General Counsel John Wilson, violated the First Amendment , and Chief U.S.
District Judge Mark Walker last week granted the committee’s request for a temporary restraining order blocking state officials from taking any action against broadcasters airing the ad. Walker will hold a hearing Tuesday in the case. In a document filed Tuesday opposing the committee’s request for a preliminary injunction, lawyers for Department of Health Secretary Joseph Ladapo, who is the state surgeon general, argued that the ad contains “objectively false factual information” because the six-week law in.
