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On October 3, 2024, the Florida Department of Health sent identical letters to at least two local TV stations concerning their broadcast of a political ad advocating abortion rights. The department alleged that the ad contained false claims about Florida’s abortion law and therefore constituted an unlawful “sanitary nuisance” that must be removed from the air.

On October 10, FIREwrote a letter calling on the department to rescind its demand that the TV stations stop airing the ad and reminding the department that under our constitutional framework, counterspeech — not censorship — is the remedy for speech believed to be false.

On October 16, the group sponsoring the ad sued Florida DOH officials. The following day, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida issued a temporary restraining order barring the state from taking any enforcement action against or directing additional threats to anyone airing the ad.