John Wilson, general counsel for the Florida Department of Health, wrote in a sworn affidavit that officials from Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) office pushed him to threaten television stations with criminal prosecutions if they did not take down ads in support of a Florida abortion rights measure.
Wilson, who resigned from his position on Oct. 10, wrote in the affidavit that he received prewritten letters directing him to send the threatening letters under his name on behalf of the Florida Department of Health.
He said he received the letters on Oct. 3 from Sam Elliot, assistant general counsel for the executive office of the governor. Wilson said he was also directed to send the letters by Ryan Newman and Jed Jody, two other officials in DeSantis’s office.
Wilson did send the letters, which pressured the TV stations to take down political advertisements in support of Amendment 4, a ballot measure that, if approved, would broaden access to abortion in the state of Florida. The measure, which needs the support of 60 percent of voters to pass, would effectively 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 Times. “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 office for comment.
Wilson is now being sued, along with Joseph Ladapo, the Florida surgeon general and head of the Department of Health, by Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group sponsoring Amendment 4. It claims the threatening letters sent to the television stations violated their First Amendment rights.
The “Yes on 4” advertisement features a woman named Caroline Williams, who was diagnosed with brain cancer while pregnant and made the decision to have an abortion so she could receive life-extending cancer treatment. The ad said the current ban would have prevented her from having the procedure.
Florida’s Department of Health previously said the description of the law in the television ad is false and warned TV stations across the state it contained false information that violated the state’s “sanitary nuisance laws.”
The ballot initiative’s campaign director, Lauren Brenzel, said in a statement that the department’s letters were “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 statement said. “We will continue our campaign in the face of this blatant government interference, but we must remain focused.”
