Judge slaps down Florida effort to ban abortion ad: ‘It’s the first amendment, stupid’

Florida's health department can't block a TV advertisement in support of a ballot measure that would protect abortion rights, a federal judge ruled on Thursday, after the department sent letters to local TV stations commanding them to stop airing the ad or risk criminal consequences.

"The government cannot excuse its indirect censorship of political speech simply by declaring the disfavored speech is 'false'," US district judge Mark E Walker wrote in his ruling. "To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it's the First Amendment, stupid."

Florida is one of 10 states set to vote on abortion-related ballot measures in November. If enacted, Florida's measure would enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution and roll back the state's six-week ban on the procedure, which took effect in May.

Earlier this month, Florida's health department sent cease-and-desist letters to TV stations running an ad by Floridians Protecting Freedom, the campaign behind the measure. In the ad, a woman named Caroline speaks about being diagnosed with cancer while pregnant.

"The doctors knew if I did not end my pregnancy, I would lose my baby, I would lose my life and my daughter would lose her mom," Caroline says in the ad. "Florida has now banned abortion even in cases like mine."

The letters said the claim that women can't get life-saving abortions in Florida was "categorically false", since Florida's ban permits abortions in medical emergencies. "The fact is these ads are unequivocally false and detrimental to public health in Florida," Jae Williams, the Florida department of health communications director, said in an email late on Thursday.

However, doctors across the country have said abortion bans are worded so vaguely as to force them to deny people medically necessary abortions. A New York doctor recently said that she had treated a woman with an ectopic pregnancy - which is nonviable and potentially life-threatening if left untreated - who had been turned away from a Florida hospital.