The ex-Department of Health (DOH) lawyer who sent cease and desist letters threatening TV stations for playing abortion rights ads says he didn’t write the letters — Gov. Ron DeSantis’ legal counsel did.
“I did not draft the letters or participate in any discussions about the letters prior to Oct. 3, 2024,” wrote John Wilson, who said he resigned on Oct. 10 from his position as DOH General Counsel because he refused to send more letters to the media. “I received drafts of the letter directly from Sam Elliot, Assistant General Counsel for the Executive Office of the Governor, earlier that day.”
Wilson said he was directed to sign his name on the letters on behalf of DOH.
Before Wilson resigned, Wilson said DeSantis’ attorneys directed him to “execute contracts for outside counsel to be retained by the Department to assist with enforcement proceedings pursuant to the Oct. 3, 2024 letters.”
DeSantis’ Office did not immediately comment on Wilson’s allegations Monday.
Floridians Protecting Freedom (FPF), the political committee supporting Amendment 4, sued Wilson and Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, who is also the head of DOH.
FPF voluntarily dismissed Wilson from the lawsuit Monday as Wilson submitted an affidavit describing the DeSantis administration’s involvement in drafting the cease and desist letters.
Last week, a federal Judge granted a temporary restraining order to keep the state from threatening TV stations with criminal prosecution for playing the Amendment 4 abortion rights ads.
“To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid,” U.S. District Judge Mark Walker wrote in his 17-page order.
On Monday, DeSantis continued to attack the abortion rights initiative on the podium as he spoke at a Florida Physicians Against Amendment 4 rally in Miami.
“I’ve never seen anything like this where you have massive amounts of money coming from out of state,” DeSantis said during the rally.
“Yet, they don’t say anything about what’s actually in their amendment. They spend their entire millions and millions of dollars telling verifiable lies about the policies and laws of the state of Florida. Why wouldn’t they be talking about all the different things that are going to happen if this were to be amended into Florida’s Constitution?”
DeSantis and other Amendment 4 opponents argue the initiative is written vaguely to deregulate abortion care without oversight. DeSantis said Amendment 4 would open the door to publicly funded abortions and eliminate the rules requiring parent consent for abortions.
But the ballot question explicitly states, “This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.”
DeSantis also slammed the Amendment 4 ads in the wake of FPF’s lawsuit.
“The advertising is 100% going on the deceptive track to just try to tell lie after lie after lie,” DeSantis said.
Others appealed to Christian values to vote down Amendment 4.
“We cannot go to church and pray like Christians then turn around and vote like atheists,” Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez said at the rally.
Meanwhile, FPF said in the lawsuit that the state is escalating its attack on Amendment 4 using public resources to advance the state’s anti-abortion position and slam pro-abortion right advocates as liars.
The commercial at the heart of the legal battle was about a Tampa woman who had an abortion because she needed life-extending chemotherapy for terminal brain cancer.
Florida’s six-week abortion ban does allow for some exceptions — if the victims of rape, incest or sexual trafficking get document to prove it — or to save a woman’s life. But the six-week ban also adds complexities and requirements to get the medical procedure. Abortion to save a mother’s life is permitted, although FPF says the woman with terminal cancer would not have been allowed to get an abortion under Florida’s ban because it wouldn’t have technically saved her life.
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