Attacks on Democracy

Let’s talk about what Donald Trump means when he says that abortion will be “up to the states”: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration is threatening television stations that run ads for Amendment 4 with misdemeanor charges. Just when I think I’ve lost my ability to be shocked!

The Florida Department of Health sent a letter to WFLA TV, telling its vice president that running the Amendment 4 ad—which features a woman talking about her experience with a doomed pregnancy—puts people’s health and lives at risk. The letter threatens that if the station doesn’t remove the TV spot, the state will move ahead with legal proceedings and that breaking the law could lead to misdemeanor charges.

It doesn’t get more clearcut than this. As Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, tweeted, “Floridians, THIS is not democracy!”

“We do not live in a free state, free of government interference, free of government intimidation and free of government overreach,” she said.

And as journalist Jason Garcia notes, this letter comes at the same time that DeSantis is using taxpayer dollars to run ads attacking Amendment 4 everywhere from ESPN and CNN to the fucking Weather Channel. (Using the power of state agencies to lobby against a citizen initiative is against the law, but a judge ruled in favor of DeSantis regardless last week.)

Here’s the ad DeSantis doesn’t want Floridians to see: