DeSantis using state money, time and his power to fight abortion rights measure

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — After a month of updating Floridians on hurricanes, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is now focusing his official office on fighting an abortion rights amendment, holding a campaign-like rally at state expense two weeks before the election.

DeSantis’ event Monday, which was capped with a prayer from the archbishop of Miami and the lieutenant governor asking people to not vote like atheists, came after the Department of Health’s top lawyer resigned over a letter he said the governor’s office forced him to send to television stations in an effort to stop a pro-Amendment 4 ad.

“When you’re dealing with constitutional amendments your default should always be no,” DeSantis said at the event attended by doctors who opposed the abortion amendment. “You can always alter normal policies and legislation. Once it’s in the constitution, that’s forever. You really have zero chance of ever changing. it.”

Just before the event, former Department of Health top lawyer John Wilson signed an affidavit stating that lawyers for DeSantis wrote a letter under his name and told him to mail it to television stations threatening legal action if they continued to air a Yes on 4 ad.

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Wilson said in Monday’s affidavit that he later resigned rather than send additional letters. Last week a judge blocked the department from taking any more action to threaten TV stations over the ads. Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group that produced the commercial, filed a lawsuit Wednesday over the state’s communications with stations.

“This affidavit exposes state interference at the highest level. It’s clear the State is hellbent on keeping Florida’s unpopular, cruel abortion ban in place,” Yes on 4 campaign director Lauren Brenzel said in a statement emailed to reporters. “Their extreme attacks on Amendment 4 are an anti-democratic tactic.”

The ballot measure is one of nine similar ones across the country, but the campaign over it is the most expensive so far, with ads costing about $160 million, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact. It would require the approval of 60% of voters to be adopted and would override the state law that bans abortion in most cases after the first six weeks of pregnancy, which is before women often realize they’re pregnant.

The DeSantis’ administration has taken multiple steps against the ballot measure. At Monday’s event, a large crowd cheered DeSantis’ criticism of the amendment. The loudest cheers, though, were for Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez.

After one of the doctors said his opposition to the amendment wasn’t religious, Nunez said the issue was religious for her.

“We cannot go to church and pray like Christians and turn around and vote like atheists,” Nunez said to an extended standing ovation.

The event closed with a prayer by Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski.

“We pray ... that you awaken in every heart of the citizens of this great state of Florida reverence for the work of your hands and renew among your people a readiness to nurture and sustain your precious gift of human life,” Wenski said.

A group critical of DeSantis issued a statement condemning the use of government resources to hold the No on 4 event.

“DeSantis continued his weaponization of state government against his own constituents by coordinating a taxpayer-funded press conference with the political campaign opposing Amendment 4 in his quest to silence the voices of doctors and patients suffering under Florida’s extreme abortion ban,” said DeSantis Watch spokesman Anders Croy.