FCC warns Florida: Threatening TV stations over abortion ad violates First Amendment

Image via Florida Freedom Fund.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is sending a stern message to the state after the Department of Health (DOH) sent cease and desist letters to TV stations for playing ads backing a ballot initiative to protect abortion rights.

“The right of broadcasters to speak freely is rooted in the First Amendment,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. “Threats against broadcast stations for airing content that conflicts with the government’s views are dangerous and undermine the fundamental principle of free speech.”

Rosenworcel’s response comes after DOH took issue with an Amendment 4 ad that tells the story of a Tampa woman who was diagnosed with terminal cancer when she was 20 weeks pregnant. She had an abortion to extend her life, something she says wouldn’t be possible now under the state’s current abortion rules.

“The Florida Department of Health has been notified that your company is disseminating a political advertisement claiming that current Florida law does not allow physicians to perform abortions necessary to preserve the lives and health of pregnant women,” DOH General Counsel John Wilson wrote in an Oct. 3 letter to WCJB-TV from Gainesville and other stations, according to the Amendment 4 campaign. “The advertisement is not only false; it is dangerous.”

Amendment 4 responded to the TV executives, demanding the ad remain playing.

“This is not simply an instance where your station has received a baseless cease-and-desist letter in the context of a heated political campaign,” the campaign said. “Here, the Department is threatening the station with criminal prosecution if it does not cease running the Advertisement. This is not just an unfounded request, it is unconstitutional state action. The Letter is a textbook example of government coercion that violates the First Amendment.”

Floridians Protecting Freedom, the political committee behind the citizen-led effort to get abortion right on the Nov. 5 ballot, argued the woman’s story details a reality happening in Florida.

“Pregnant patients who have cancer generally cannot undergo chemotherapy. And because the cancer is not immediately life threatening, an abortion is not permitted,” the campaign also said in the letter. “This means that the pregnant person will either need to delay or forgo treatment, jeopardizing their life, or travel out of state to obtain an abortion.”

The FCC regulates television stations in the United States. The agency licenses stations and regulates interstate and international communications.