Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ office is accused of pressuring a lawyer to send advertisement letters to TV stations about the abortion issue. According to the lawyer, the DeSantis administration sought to involve him in a complex political situation and compel him to issue threats of prosecution against TV stations if they ran ads opposing controversial abortion legislation.
The letters were intended to stop stations from running an advertisement criticizing a bill sponsored by Republican State Senator Kelli Stargel. This bill, if passed, would ban most abortions in the state after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The lawyer, Robert Corn-Revere, said that representatives of the governor’s office called him and pressed him to write to the TV stations.
However, Corn-Revere clarified he was not an agent of the state and said it was inappropriate for the governor’s staff to ask him to issue threats on behalf of the state. He detailed called it an effort to suppress the free speech rights of a political advocacy group that opposes the proposed abortion law.
This action of DeSantis’s office has sparked controversy, and debates about the balance between the Governor’s executive power and the freedom of speech are ongoing.