By Jim Saunders ©2024 The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — A Leon County circuit judge is slated Wednesday to hear arguments in a political committee’s request for a temporary injunction to block the state Agency for Health Care Administration from disseminating what the committee calls “misinformation” about a proposed constitutional amendment on abortion rights.
Circuit Judge Jonathan Sjostrom last week scheduled a hearing after Floridians Protecting Freedom, a committee leading efforts to pass the amendment, filed a lawsuit and an emergency motion for a temporary injunction on Sept. 12.
The case stems from a controversial website and ads that the agency has used to disseminate information about Amendment 4, which would enshrine abortion rights in the state Constitution. With Gov. Ron DeSantis helping lead efforts to defeat the amendment, Floridians Protecting Freedom contends the agency has violated state law by using public resources to spread inaccurate information about the proposal.
Issues in the lawsuit include statements on the website such as, “Current Florida Law Protects Women, Amendment 4 Threatens Women’s Safety.”
“Through this website, AHCA disparages Amendment 4 and Floridians Protecting Freedom as its sponsor, alleging fearmongering and lying,” the motion for a temporary injunction said. “AHCA presents voters with false information about Amendment 4 and current law and creates a sense of urgency that ‘Current Law Protects Women. Amendment 4 Threatens Women’s Safety,’ that Amendment 4 will ‘lead to unregulated and unsafe abortions,’ and ‘We must keep Florida from becoming an abortion tourism destination state.’ Voters can only be left with the impression that this state agency is advising them to vote no on Amendment 4.”
A state response to the temporary injunction motion had not been posted on the court website as of early afternoon Monday. But in an email this month, the Agency for Health Care Administration’s communications office said AHCA was providing facts and information to Floridians.
“Part of the agency’s mission is to provide information and transparency to Floridians on the quality of care they receive,” the email said. “Our new transparency page serves to educate Floridians on the state’s current abortion laws and provide information on a proposed policy change that would impact care across the state.”
DeSantis this month also defended the agency’s information, describing it as “above board” and likening it to public-service announcements by other government agencies.
But in the motion for a temporary injunction, Floridians Protecting Freedom said the website “contains express advocacy against Amendment 4.” It wants Sjostrom to declare that the agency’s actions violate the committee’s right to propose constitutional amendments, order the agency to remove advertising or materials that “violate FPF’s (the committee’s) rights and enjoin AHCA from disseminating such advertising or other materials in the future.”
The Floridians Protecting Freedom lawsuit came two days after Palm Beach County attorney Adam Richardson filed a case at the Florida Supreme Court about the agency information. That case also remains pending.
Richardson asked the Supreme Court to issue what is known as a writ of quo warranto to Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Jason Weida, DeSantis and Attorney General Ashley Moody “forbidding them from misusing or abusing their offices to interfere with the election for Amendment 4, and to unravel whatever actions they have already taken to do so.”
In part, the proposed constitutional amendment says, no ”law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.”
Floridians Protecting Freedom began the drive to pass the constitutional amendment after DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature last year approved a law to prevent abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. That law took effect May 1.
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