Jason Weida, secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA). (Sceenshot)
A conservative legal organization is coming to the defense of Florida Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Jason Weida and efforts by the DeSantis administration to defeat Amendment 4.
Liberty Counsel and its allied Liberty Counsel Action on Monday weighed in on a request by a Palm Beach County lawyer to block AHCA from maintaining a website that contends the abortion access measure threatens the safety of women. The agency has also put up television and radio ads urging people to visit the website.
Liberty filed an amicus brief with the Florida Supreme Court, which is handling the case, arguing that Gov. Ron DeSantis and other officials including Attorney General Ashley Moody enjoy a First Amendment right to speak out on matters of public concern.
“Florida’s abortion amendment could have a devastating effect on the state’s residents if passed,” said Mat Staver, founder and chair of Liberty Counsel. “Governor DeSantis and Attorney General Ashley Moody’s participation in the public debate over Amendment 4 is not only permissible but it is essential. They cannot ignore their obligation to educate the public about this deceptive and extreme abortion amendment.”
If passed by 60% of voters, Amendment 4 would undo Florida’s existing ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, which took effect earlier this year, through the viability, or around 14 weeks’ gestation.
Opponents of the abortion ban mobilized last year and gathered enough signatures to get on the November ballot. But DeSantis and other Republicans have mounted a political campaign against the measure and have in recent weeks used government resources to urge voters to vote no.
The legal tussle at the Supreme Court is one of two lawsuits actively challenging AHCA’s actions. Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group sponsoring the initiative, has filed its own lawsuit with the help of attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.
A trial court judge in Tallahassee has scheduled an emergency hearing on Wednesday to consider a temporary injunction against AHCA. The injunction request maintains that AHCA is “grossly misrepresenting” Amendment 4.
DeSantis, who has been blasting the abortion access amendment for weeks and criticized the state Supreme Court for allowing the amendment on the ballot, has defended the actions of his agency.