TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A judge has blocked the head of Florida's state health department from taking any more action to threaten TV stations over an abortion-rights commercial they've been airing. U.
S. District Judge Mark Walker's ruling Thursday sided with Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group that produced the commercial promoting a ballot measure that would add abortion rights to the state constitution if it passes in the Nov. 5 election.
The group filed a lawsuit earlier this week over the state's communications with stations. “The government cannot excuse its indirect censorship of political speech simply by declaring the disfavored speech is ‘false,’” the judge said in a written opinion. He added, “To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid.
” State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and John Wilson, who was then the top lawyer at the health department before resigning unexpectedly, sent a letter to TV stations on Oct. 3 telling them to stop running an FPF ad, asserting that it was false and dangerous. The letter also says it could be subject to criminal proceedings.
FPF said about 50 stations were running the ad and that most or all of them received the letter — and at least one stopped running the commercial. The group said the state was wrong when it claimed that assertions in the commercial were false. The state's objection was to a woman's assertion that the abortion she received in 2022 after she was diagnosed wit.
