TALLAHASSEE — After a proposed constitutional amendment on abortion rights did not pass Tuesday, a federal judge has denied a request for a preliminary injunction against state officials over threats to television stations that aired an ad supporting the ballot measure. Chief U.S.
District Judge Mark Walker on Wednesday issued an eight-page decision that rejected an injunction sought by Floridians Protecting Freedom, a political committee that sponsored the amendment. The committee filed a lawsuit last month seeking a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction after the state Department of Health sent threatening letters to broadcasters alleging that the disputed ad posed a public “health nuisance.” The letters came as Gov.
Ron DeSantis and his administration tried to defeat what appeared as Amendment 4 on Tuesday’s ballot. The ad, dubbed “Caroline,” told the story of a woman who was diagnosed with brain cancer when she was 18 weeks pregnant. Doctors told the woman they could not treat her with chemotherapy or radiation while pregnant, so she had an abortion.
The woman in the ad said that “doctors knew if I did not end my pregnancy . . .
I would lose my life” and that “Florida has now banned abortion even in cases like mine.” The assertion in the ad was based on a law that DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature passed last year to largely prevent abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Marijuana and abortion amendments failed in F.
