Florida Official Throws DeSantis Under Bus for Bid to Block Pro-Abortion Ads

[In It to Win It]

Florida Official Throws DeSantis Under Bus for Bid to Block Pro-Abortion Ads

A former lawyer for the Florida Department of Health is pointing the finger at Governor Ron DeSantis’ administration for threatening TV stations airing advertisements supporting abortion rights.

Last week, John Wilson, then General Counsel for the Florida Department of Health, abruptly resigned from his position after issuing cease and desist letters threatening prosecution to various television stations airing ads in support of Amendment 4, a ballot measure that — if passed — would enshrine in the state’s constitution the right to abortion care before fetal viability. The amendment would effectively repeal the state’s stringent six-week abortion ban, which has wreaked havoc on health care providers and patients since its enforcement.

“A man is nothing without his conscience,” Wilson wrote in a resignation letter obtained by the Miami Herald, “It has become clear in recent days that I cannot join you on the road that lies before the agency.”

But Wilson is going a step further than a resignation, attesting in an affidavit unsealed on Monday that while his office was responsible for sending the letters, the directive came directly from DeSantis’ office.

“I did not draft the letters or participate in any discussions about the letters prior to October 3, 2024,” Wilson said. “Ryan Newman, General Counsel for the Executive Office of the Governor, and Jed Doty, Deputy General Counsel for the Executive Office of the Governor, directed me to send them under my name and on the behalf of the Florida Department of Health.”