Abortion rights group sues after Florida orders TV stations to stop airing ad

Source: AP

Updated 10:45 AM EDT, October 16, 2024


A group campaigning for a Florida abortion-right ballot measure sued state officials Wednesday over their order to TV stations to stop airing one ad produced by the group, Floridians Protecting Freedom. The state’s health department, part of the administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, told TV stations earlier this month to stop airing the commercial, asserting that it was false and dangerous and that keeping it running could result in criminal proceedings.

The group said in its filing in U.S. District Court in Tallahassee that the state’s action was part of a campaign to attack the abortion-rights amendment “using public resources and government authority to advance the State’s preferred characterization of its anti-abortion laws as the ‘truth’ and denigrate opposing viewpoints as ‘lies.’”

The state health department did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment. State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, who heads the department, and its former general counsel, John Wilson, were named in the filing, which seeks to block the state from initiating criminal complaints against stations airing the ad.

The group has said that the commercial started airing on Oct. 1 on about 50 stations. All or nearly all of them received the state’s letter and most kept airing the ad, the group said. At least one pulled the ad, the lawsuit said.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/florida-abortion-commercial-desantis-lawsuit-979cd3059d79c92a2b8038585fa922e0