Gabrielle Russon
The woman, known only as Caroline, who was thrust into a First Amendment legal fight with the state over a pro-abortion rights political ad spoke to reporters Friday.
Caroline, who doesn’t want to be identified by her last name, shared her story about having an abortion in 2022 during her second trimester after she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.
“When I was 18 weeks pregnant, I started having symptoms where I wasn’t able to speak, write, focus, and I couldn’t read. It happened so fast, like over six days, and I thought maybe I was having a stroke,” Carolina said during an Amendment 4 media call. “After getting progressively worse, I went to the emergency room, and that is where they found a large mass in my brain.”
Doctors wanted her to start chemotherapy and radiation right away to extend her life.
“All I wanted to do was leave the Neuro-ICU and go home to my almost 2-year-old girl,” Caroline said. “It was the hardest decision that I have ever made in my life, but I chose to end my pregnancy and prepare for radiation that next day. My abortion allowed me more time to be a mother to my daughter and a wife to my husband.”
Caroline, now a reproductive freedom advocate, was featured in an Amendment 4 commercial for the abortion rights initiative on the Nov. 5 ballot — an ad the Department of Health (DOH) sought to get pulled off the airways.
A then-DOH attorney sent cease and desist letters to Florida TV stations, threatening them with criminal prosecution if they continued to play the ad.
Caroline said she received compassionate messages of support after her emotional commercial began playing, but was packing up to evacuate from Hurricane Milton in Tampa when she learned about the state’s cease and desist letters.
“It stung a bit because it surprised me,” Caroline said. “I was surprised because in my community, my neighborhood, it was all support and love.”
The state argued the Caroline ad is misleading and Florida’s six-week ban makes an exception for pregnant women to get abortions beyond six weeks to save their lives.
Floridians Protecting Freedom, the political committee behind Amendment 4, stands by the ad and says people in Caroline’s situation today would not get access to the medical care they needed since the abortion only would extend their lives, not save it, since Caroline’s cancer is terminal.
A federal Judge granted a temporary restraining order Thursday to prevent the state from threatening TV stations further.
“To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid,” U.S. District Judge Mark Walker wrote in his 17-page order.
WINK-TV, a CBS affiliate in Fort Myers, stopped playing the ads but has resumed them again, according to Floridians Protecting Freedom, the political committee behind Amendment 4 that sued two Florida officials for First Amendment violations.
20 comments
Billy Rotberg
October 18, 2024 at 4:49 pm
Abortion is a great way to reduce population. Have at it. But then again there are plenty of birth control methods which would eliminate the whole issue if some people weren’t that lazy.
Sue
October 18, 2024 at 5:52 pm
It’s not used as birth control in the way you are thinking. It may occasionally but to have an abortion in the 4 month and beyond it mostly from women as this one in the ad. She wanted more time with her 2 yr old daughter as this woman’s cancer is terminal. An abortion for her, as the law goes, wouldn’t be allowed because it wouldn’t “save the life” of the mother. Another reason woman have late term abortions is because the fetus has died and the pregnancy is no longer viable. The woman’s life is still not in danger. The last argument is when a woman finds out there is total devastation of a fetus with birth defects that would hinder the fetus from having any normalcy to life or will die soon after birth (fetuses who’s brains hasn’t developed) and the eventual baby with be a vegetable for life or may die soon after birth. Sometimes in a grossly suffering manner. Women want to terminate to keep fetus from suffering or have a child that would not have any quality of life and would use up any and all resources just to keep child alive. That itself cruel and abusive.
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Cheesy Floridian
October 18, 2024 at 7:30 pm
That’s a pretty insulting statement for many ways. But more so because your commenting on a post about a woman who needed an abortion so she could have more time with her daughter because of terminal cancer
Sue
October 21, 2024 at 5:34 pm
The point is, she wouldn’t qualify in Florida for an abortion. The only way she would “qualify” would be to save her life. It wouldn’t “save her life”, it would allow her more time with her 2 yr old daughter. I think it’s horrible that due to religious believes, this woman cannot suddenly decide that a pregnancy now would not be beneficial to her daughter or to herself. Yes, so far she can go to another state to have the abortion but she shouldn’t HAVE to is the point. She should be able to make this decision on her own without anyone saying anything to her about her decision, PERIOD!
George
October 18, 2024 at 7:39 pm
Ignorance sure is bliss, huh?
G
October 19, 2024 at 8:58 am
Tell me you’re an incel without telling me you’re an incel
Bobby Kent
October 19, 2024 at 12:59 pm
You can’t read? This woman had a terminal brain cancer. How was she supposed to know to use birth control, genius? Unbelievable lack of simple logic from the “pro-life” crowd, wow.
Josh Green
October 21, 2024 at 2:24 pm
Well there it. The dumbest thing i’ve read all week.
Sue
October 18, 2024 at 6:08 pm
It’s not used as birth control in the way you are thinking. It may occasionally but to have an abortion in the 4th month and beyond it mostly from women as
this one in the ad. She wanted more time with her 2 yr old daughter as this woman’s cancer is terminal. An abortion for her, as the law goes, wouldn’t be
allowed because it wouldn’t “save the life” of the mother. Another reason woman have late term abortions is because the fetus has died and the pregnacy is no longer viable.The woman’s life is still not in danger.Thelast argument is when a woman finds out there is total devastation of a fetus with birth defect’s
Sometimes in a suffering manner. For the woman and the fetus. Women want
to terminate to keep fetus from suffering or | have a child that would not have any quality of
life and would use up any and all resources just to keep child alive.
That itself cruel and abusive.
Jose A
October 18, 2024 at 10:15 pm
Good evening, it strikes me, that men are still discussing women’s abortion, if I am not mistaken we are in the 21st century, how many centuries have to pass for gentlemen to realize that women are the best we have in our lives, we must respect them, whether they are wrong or not, We are no one to decide, really that is decided by the family or her in case she is single. If the translation is not clear my apologies
Bobble head Kammy
October 19, 2024 at 4:25 am
So the ad is deceptive. I am not surprised. The state says “Caroline” could have terminated anyway since her life was in jeopardy. How much was “Caroline” paid to do the ad? In this day and age of modern contraception for males and females I am really surprised this is even a big deal.
cassandra was right
October 19, 2024 at 12:14 pm
No, the ad is not deceptive. The six week ban’s life exception is to “save the life” of the woman. Not “extend” her life. Caroline’s abortion was to extend her life so that her daughter would have a mother, and her husband a wife, for as long as possible. Without the abortion Caroline could not have received the cancer treatment that has given her more — and better quality — time with her family. DeSantis is lying. This sanctimonious little man has stolen much from Floridians. Our lives and health are going just too far. Even the dimmest among us should recognize that.
Contraceptives would not have helped Caroline. She and her husband wanted the baby they were expecting. The abortion was provided as standard of care to extend and improve her remaining time. With DeSantis’ ban, Caroline would have been denied treatment.
Bobby Kent
October 19, 2024 at 1:02 pm
Try reading the article first. You know, the article, where it tells you how wrong you are.
a granny
October 19, 2024 at 4:13 pm
Amen! How much was she paid to tell lies about something so sensitive and divisive as abortion? I hate to watch these biased ads that do not tell the truth!
Dont Say FLA
October 22, 2024 at 9:01 am
To be clear, you hate to watch half the biased ads that do not tell the truth.
And regarding the other half of the biased ads that do not tell the truth?
That’s your gospel. You just can’t get enough. You just can’t get enough.
Jojo
October 19, 2024 at 7:22 am
I wouldn’t be surprised if Caroline and the judge start getting hate mail.
That’s always the way with mindless ideologues- when their tiny world view is threatened they lash out in truly stupid ways.
Bobble head Kammy
October 19, 2024 at 8:29 am
Hate mail is generated by both sides. We have our nuts and so do you.
Bobby Kent
October 19, 2024 at 1:03 pm
Nah. Pro-lifers are the ones who call in bomb threats, bomb clinics, assassinate doctors, etc. All of this is on your “side.”
Dont Say FLA
October 22, 2024 at 8:59 am
Wasn’t it left to the states before Roe V Wade legalized healthcare for all women in USA? And how did that work out? Oh yeah- Roe V Wade became the law of the land because women kept ending up dead all over the place. Even daughters of Republicans ended up dead from an infection from using a coat hanger.
You’d think GOPs would be anti-gun considering how they always shoot themselves in both their own feets, but as Uncle Ronnie used to say, “there they go again”
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