Is
the
Twitter
comments
section
running
Florida’s
legal
department
these
days?
Has
state
AG
Ashley
Moody
simply
wandered
off
in
shame
after
one
too
many
spankings
at
the
hands
of
the
federal
judiciary?
What
even
is
this
shit?
Florida
Governor
Ron
DeSantis’s
administration
has
tried
multiple
stratagems
to
sour
the
public
on
Amendment
4,
a
ballot
referendum
which
would
enshrine
the
right
to
an
abortion
in
the
state’s
constitution.
Now
Health
Department
General
Counsel
John
Wilson
is
threatening
criminal
penalties
for
a
Gainesville
television
station
if
it
doesn’t
pull
an
ad
supporting
the
state’s
abortion
referendum
off
the
air.
The
spot features
a
Florida
woman
named
Caroline
who
was
diagnosed
with
terminal
brain
cancer
when
she
was
20
weeks
pregnant.
“The
doctors
knew
if
I
did
not
end
my
pregnancy,
I
would
lose
my
baby,
I
would
lose
my
life,
and
my
daughter
would
lose
her
mom.
Florida
has
now
banned
abortion
even
in
cases
like
mine,”
she
said.
According
to
Florida
health
officials,
this
spot
is
a
“sanitary
nuisance”
under the
Florida
Clean
Air
Act,
which
imposes
on
the
DOH
the
duty
to
order
the
remediation
of
sanitary
nuisances
such
as
“air
pollutants,
gases,
and
noisome
odors,”
“improperly
built
or
maintained
septic
tanks,
water
closets,
or
privies,”
“any
condition
capable
of
breeding
flies,
mosquitoes,
or
other
arthropods,”
or
“the
keeping,
maintaining,
propagation,
existence,
or
permission
of
anything,
by
an
individual,
municipality,
organization,
or
corporation,
by
which
the
health
or
life
of
an
individual,
or
the
health
or
lives
of
individuals,
may
be
threatened
or
impaired,
or
by
which
or
through
which,
directly
or
indirectly,
disease
may
be
caused.”
Apparently
the
video
of
this
woman
describing
her
own
experiences
falls
into
that
last
category.
Women
faced
with
pregnancy
complications
posing
a
serious
risk
of
death
or
substantial
and
irreversible
physical
impairment
may
and
should
seek
medical
treatment
in
Florida.
However,
if
they
are
led
to
believe
that
such
treatment
is
unavailable
under
Florida
law,
such
women
could
foreseeably
travel
out
of
state
to
seek
emergency
medical
care,
seek
emergency
medical
care
from
unlicensed
providers
in
Florida,
or
not
seek
emergency
medical
care
at
all.
Such
actions
would
threaten
or
impair
the
health
and
lives
of
these
women.
BREAKING:
Crisis
pregnancy
centers
are
illegal
now.
The
Elias
Law
Group,
which
represents
Floridians
Protecting
Freedom,
the
group
which
placed
the
ad,
responded
with
its
own
letter
to
the
station,
published
by
Florida
Politics,
calling
the
DOH’s
threat
“a
textbook
example
of
government
coercion
that
violates
the
First
Amendment”
and
“a
flagrant
abuse
of
power.”
The
letter
also
notes
that
nothing
in
the
ad
was
false.
Florida’s
six-week
ban
does
have
an
exception
to
preserve
the
mother’s
life,
but
with
a
terminal
diagnosis,
Caroline
would
not
have
qualified.
“Practically,
that
means
that
an
abortion
would
not
have
saved
her
life,
only
extended
it,”
FPF’s
lawyers
wrote.
“Florida
law
would
not
allow
an
abortion
in
this
instance
because
the
abortion
would
not
have
‘save[d]
the
pregnant
woman’s
life,’
only
extended
her
life.”
Meanwhile,
DeSantis
is
using
taxpayer
funds
to
run
ads
falsely
claiming
that
the
amendment,
which
enshrines
the
right
to
a
pre-viability
abortion,
would
deregulate
abortion
care
and
override
parental
consent
laws.
“What’s
going
to
happen
is
that
will
create
a
lot
of
bootleg
abortion
clinics
around
the
state,”
he
said
last
month.
Of
course,
he
also
said
that
Florida
is
a
shining
beacon
of
free
speech,
so
…
take
that
one
with
a
giant
grain
of
salt.
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos substack and podcast.