Florida targets deceptive pro-abortion political campaign with cease-and-desist letters

Broadcasters don't have the right 'to disseminate false advertisements' that could hurt people

Oct 9, 2024 - 16:28
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Florida targets deceptive pro-abortion political campaign with cease-and-desist letters
(Image by amyelizabethquinn from Pixabay)

(Image by amyelizabethquinn from Pixabay)

The state of Florida is targeting a deceptive pro-abortion ad campaign that has been launched there with cease-and-desist letters to television stations that have aired the lies.

A report from Liberty Counsel, a key legal team that has fought numerous battles against the pro-abortion ideology that has flooded America in recent years, explains it’s a political ad that contains what the state Department of Health has determined is “false” information about the state’s current law.

“The 30-second advertisement features a woman named Caroline who chose to have an abortion after being diagnosed with brain cancer. She suggests Florida’s current six-week ‘heartbeat’ law would have prevented her from getting the necessary treatment to save her life and that Amendment 4 would ‘protect’ women like her,” the report said.

The state’s Amendment 4 actually would give the abortion industry literally an open door to do abortions on anyone, at anytime, anywhere.

It is the state agency’s general counsel, John Wilson, who wrote in the letter that it is “categorically false” to make the claim that Florida’s law, banning abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, “prohibits abortions to preserve the lives and health of pregnant women,” Liberty Counsel reported.

Wilson stated, in the letter, “After six weeks, an abortion may be performed if ‘two physicians certify in writing, in reasonable medical judgment, the termination of the pregnancy is necessary to save the pregnant woman’s life.'”

The current law, which would make the amendment appear to be unnecessary, also states, “if preserving the life and health of the fetus conflicts with preserving the life and health of the pregnant woman, the physician must consider preserving the woman’s life and health the overriding and superior concern,” Liberty Counsel noted.

The ad is beyond false, but actually dangerous, the letter explained, as it could lead women “to believe that life-saving or health-preserving treatment is unavailable for pregnant women in Florida,” the report said.

Some of the damages that could result from the airing of the ad, the state agency warned, would be that it possibly could “lead women to travel out of state for medical care, seek emergency care from unlicensed providers, or not seek medical care at all,” the report said.

Those circumstances actually could be a threat to the lives of pregnant women, the letter said.

Liberty Counsel noted, “Wilson informed the television stations that ‘any act’ that threatens or impairs the life or health of an individual violates the state’s ‘sanitary nuisance law’ and that the stations may be committing a second-degree misdemeanor by airing the advertisement.”

“While your company enjoys the right to broadcast political advertisements under the First Amendment … that right does not include free rein to disseminate false advertisements which, if believed, would likely have a detrimental effect an the lives and health of pregnant women in Florida,” the letter warns.

“While television stations have a First Amendment right to speak, that right does not extend to false and dangerous information about a ballot initiative designed to amend the Florida Constitution,” explained Mat Staver, the chief of Liberty Counsel.

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Fibis I am just an average American. My teen years were in the late 70s and I participated in all that that decade offered. Started working young, too young. Then I joined the Army before I graduated High School. I spent 25 years in, mostly in Infantry units. Since then I've worked in information technology positions all at small family owned companies. At this rate I'll never be a tech millionaire. When I was young I rode horses as much as I could. I do believe I should have been a cowboy. I'm getting in the saddle again by taking riding lessons and see where it goes.