{"id":320598,"date":"2024-10-22T10:50:58","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T15:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=320598"},"modified":"2024-10-21T22:56:49","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T03:56:49","slug":"judge-allows-false-ads-florida-first-amendment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/judge-allows-false-ads-florida-first-amendment\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge allows ‘categorically false’ political ads in Florida under guise of First Amendment"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An ad campaign supporting an upcoming abortion ballot initiative will be allowed to remain on the air, despite containing objectively false<\/em> information about abortion laws in Florida.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the Florida Department of Health sent a cease-and-desist letter<\/a> to local TV stations over the ad from Floridians Protecting Freedom, which featured a woman named Caroline. Though the information in the ad was misleading at best, and intentionally dishonest at worst, a judge said it should still be allowed to air due to the coalition’s First Amendment rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government cannot excuse its indirect censorship of political speech simply by declaring the disfavored speech is \u2018false,’\u201d Judge Mark E. Walker wrote<\/a>. \u201cTo keep it simple for the State of Florida: it\u2019s the First Amendment, stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the First Amendment does protect political speech, the problem with the ad is that it does<\/em>, in fact, contain patent falsehoods<\/strong><\/em>, seemingly meant to scare voters into supporting the abortion amendment.<\/p>\n

In the ad, a woman named Caroline says she was diagnosed with a brain tumor while pregnant, and had an abortion. Yet she claimed that current laws protecting preborn children in Florida would prevent her from having that abortion today. “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,\u201d Caroline says in the ad. Then, the provably false claim: \u201cFlorida has now banned abortion even in cases like mine<\/strong><\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

As noted by Governor Ron DeSantis in response to the ad, state law actually does<\/em> allow abortion for health emergencies. Regardless of Caroline’s specific situation, Florida’s law,\u00a0HB7<\/a>, which restricts abortion after the preborn child’s first detectable heartbeat, states that one of the exceptions to the law is when “There is a medical necessity for legitimate emergency medical procedures for termination of the pregnancy to save the pregnant woman’s life or avert a serious risk of imminent, substantial, and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function<\/strong> of the pregnant woman other than a psychological condition” (emphasis added).<\/p>\n

However, an induced abortion \u2014 the intentional and direct killing of a preborn child \u2014 would not have even been necessary to save Caroline’s life. By the time Caroline received her diagnosis, she was 21 weeks pregnant, which is far enough along that she could have undergone a preterm delivery if doctors felt the pregnancy would be too dangerous. This would have given both her and<\/em> her baby the chance to survive.<\/p>\n

Let’s be clear about what we mean by induced abortion:<\/p>\n