Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Florida TURNING BLUE…GOP tries to BLOCK THE VOTE

Episode Date: October 14, 2024

MAGA is trying to silence women in Florida from running ads to support the passage on Election Day of a new amendment to Florida’s constitution to give women bodily autonomy and a right to choose. Michael Popok reports on Florida’s governor sending illegal cease and desist letters to television stations that are airing pro-choice ads, and the Biden Administration firing back to protect women. Restoring women to first-class citizenship in this country is on the ballot in November. Lomi: Visit https://Lomi.com/LEGALAF and use code LEGALAF and checkout to save $50! Join the LegalAF Patreon: https://Patreon.com/legalAF Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From the kitchen to the laundry room, your home deserves the best. Give it the upgrade it deserves at Best Buy's ultimate appliance event. Save up to $1,000 on two or more major appliances. Shop now in-store or online at bestbuy.ca. Exclusions apply. This is Michael Popak, Legal AF. You know how I know that abortion and a woman's right to choose is on the ballot for November the 5th? Because MAGA red states run by people like Ron DeSantis are going after ads that are running on television stations paid for by Democrats and progressive

groups by having the Florida Department of Health send cease and desist letters against women in ads telling their authentic story about being denied reproductive health and reproductive services, including abortion in states like Florida, when their life depended on it. And now the Federal Communications Commission under Joe Biden, FCC, is fired back and said, back up and back off. We licensed broadcasters, we licensed television stations.

They have a First Amendment right, as do the people that are running the ads to put this content out there. What they don't like is the ad itself. I'm gonna run the ad for you now. This is a Florida woman who's coming forward to say that she's been diagnosed with brain cancer and that she can't get life-saving reproductive care, including an abortion.

Let's run the ad. When I saw the tumor on the MRI, my first thought was, am I going to be able to see my daughter again? The doctors knew if I did not in my pregnancy, I would lose my baby, I would lose my life, and my daughter would lose her mom. Florida has now banned abortion, even in cases like mine. Amendment four is gonna protect women like me. We have to vote yes.

That ad, that courage of women, scares the life out of Donald Trump, MAGA, and Ron DeSantis as we battle our way through the electoral process to try to win the election for Kamala Harris and put Donald Trump back where he belongs under a rock and try to restore women to first-class citizenship in this country because they're no longer first-class citizens.

In a country where they are the majority and where they vote in larger numbers than men, in 22 states, women do not have the same reproductive rights about healthcare and abortion and choice about what they have in their body and what they're forced to carry in their body. They have less rights than my mother did back in 1973. In 22 of our states. That's a

union. That's a perfect union of America. That's equal protection under the law. No, that's what happens when MAGA gets control of the federal courts and MAGA and Trump get control of the Supreme Court and he's looking, he's salivating now Donald Trump to get one or two more Supreme Court justices on there because there's always a couple of openings during almost every presidency. There's only been one where there wasn't, there was one or less Supreme Court justices selected. If he gets two more, we're cooked. Seven to two right-wing majority for the next generation or two generations. Look at your granddaughter or daughter right now. At the age of five, they'll be 45 by the time this issue

is passed with this right-wing agenda. Think about what Florida is doing. It is writ large of what they're doing in all the MAGA states. If they get control of the federal court system in the next election, if Donald Trump reshapes the federal judiciary and he creates more appellate courts like the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sitting in Louisiana

over Texas and other places, and let's multiply that, as bad as the Fifth Circuit is, that would take away a woman's right to choose, that would take away any immigration protection rights, any civil liberties, any rights for the LGBTQ community. Take away Obamacare. You don't like the Fifth Circuit? There'll be four Fifth Circuits because Donald Trump will reshape other circuits and will name people to them, name judges to them, and we'll see this happening. This is what's happening right now in Florida with DeSantis ordering his health department to send a cease and desist letter to stop

women from telling their authentic story about the lack of reproductive care in Florida is an example of what's going to happen state by state if Trump gets back in. There's no other way around it. In that ad that we just saw, Caroline from Tampa talks about being diagnosed with brain cancer while pregnant. This according to the Guardian reporting. The state currently bans abortions past about six weeks of pregnancy. You heard her quote, the doctors knew that if I did not end my pregnancy I could lose my baby. I would lose my life and my daughter would lose her mom. Florida has now banned abortion

even in cases like mine. She then urges, urges Florida in her First Amendment expression and Floridians to vote yes on a Florida ballot to put abortion rights and reproductive rights into the Florida Constitution. It's on the ballot. There's ten states in which it is on the ballot. John Wilson, who's the general counsel of the Florida Department of Health, he's puppet number one, meet puppet number one under DeSantis, called that claim, that First Amendment expression, false, categorically false, in letters to local news stations and asked for them to be pulled off of the air.

To the MAGA, the advertisement is false, it's dangerous. Women faced with pregnancy complications posing a serious risk of death or substantial and irreversible physical impairment, he said, can seek medical treatment in Florida. That's a lie. Doctors and those around them in states like Florida that have criminalized, like Texas, have criminalized abortion

unless it fits a very narrow box that they even can't figure out. You'd have to have a lawyer in the operating room. You'd have to have a lawyer scrub in, stand next to a doctor, and whisper in their ear and guide them about the procedure. And so medical providers and abortion clinics and doctors have just thrown up their hands and say, I'm getting out of this business. What's better than a clean kitchen? A kitchen that doesn't smell. With Lomi, that gross trash smell is gone. And my kitchen feels fresh all the time.

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Lomi makes the perfect gift for someone on your shopping list. There's a reason years ago a lot of OBGYNs got out of this business. They don't want to deliver babies. They don't want to do the OB part. They just want to do the GYN part. There's a reason for that. Malpractice insurance, people suing them.

But here, they don't wanna do it. And so how many cases have we heard that I've reported on Legal AF in which women have died or been seriously injured because doctors, even though they maybe on paper could, if they figured out how to read the law in time in that critical moment, could have given them the care, but didn't.

Got two women in Georgia who were scared about the law in Georgia, you know, banning it at six weeks, just like the Florida law, didn't bother getting the reproductive care and died leaving their children motherless, their other children motherless. And so now it's not enough that they ban it, not enough that they reduce women

to second class citizenship, that force and compel them like handmaids's Tale, like commanders in Handmaid's Tale. As a recent Georgia Fulton County judge just wrote in trying to find a right in Georgia at least for a woman under the Georgia Constitution, right of privacy and liberty to have reproductive autonomy. It's like forcing her through the handmaid's tale to carry a life because the state wants her to and against her will. And now it's not enough they're doing that. Florida has got to take off the air, try to take off the air and scare these television stations from running ads, bought and paid for to express a First Amendment position.

Donald Trump, who's supposedly the guardian, the protector of the First Amendment rights, he only cares about his own quote unquote First Amendment rights, not yours. This is the guy people, I don't know, 47% of the country or whatever it is, want to put back in the White House. This is the stories they want me to have to analyze and break down in a hot tick like this, but we're going to. Finally, the Federal Communications Commission, which runs who gets a license, only they can pull your ticket, not the state.

Jessica Rosenworcel said, the right of broadcasters to speak freely is rooted in the First Amendment. Threats against broadcast stations for airing content that conflicts with government's views are dangerous and undermine the fundamental principles of free speech. In other words, we got your back. We're the FCC. We are the ones that keep your license and regulate your license. Carry that. Because it'll have a chilling... this will have a chilling effect. This kind of threat and cease and desist will have a chilling effect on the next TV ad. Because the station will just go, why bother?

I don't wanna broadcast this. I don't wanna get in trouble. I'm the general manager of the station. I don't need my bosses mad at me. I don't need the state mad at me. I saw what DeSantis did in fighting with Disney. I don't need that. And they don't, it's that chilling effect. It's the ad that never gets played is

what we're talking about. And if I know groups like Mark Elias and other groups they're gonna file lawsuits in in Florida and they should against the governor to stop and have him cease and desist himself with an injunction from a federal judge of interfering with First Amendment rights of other people and that they are abridging and violating the First Amendment rights as a government which they are not allowed to do under our Constitution or under our federal law. Wait for that lawsuit. I'll be doing an update about when that lawsuit gets filed and if I know that the groups that are in charge of pro-democracy

filings, it's going to happen any minute now. And just remember, 22 states since Roe, maybe 23, if there's another one out there, made it illegal past six weeks, some a virtual entire ban. For any reason, even life of the mother even incest and Ten states are gonna be considering measures Including Florida. This is my last point here. I know that there's a major weather event hurricane I know it got downgraded But there's still a lot of suffering in Florida could impact the election could definitely impact early voting Which are usually Democrats with early voting. Women of Florida and people that support women of Florida, go to the polls. Kamala Harris is at the

top of the ticket, but just down ballot is a ballot initiative that needs 60, 60 percent to pass in order to enshrine in the Florida Constitution once and for all a woman's right to choose. Go to the polls for that reason. While you're there, vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. The only party in a two-party system that is reliable enough, honest enough, and can be counted on to protect our Constitutional Republic and the rule of law is the Democrats. The choice is is clear and let's get that a ballot initiative that Constitutional amendment in Florida passed as well So this is Michael Popock. This is what we do on legal AF at the intersection of law and politics

We have a podcast legal AF. It's here on the Midas Touch Network. We got a brand new channel at the intersection of law and politics I'm curating with the Midas Touch Network called legal AF intersection of law and politics I'm curating with the Midas Touch Network called Legal AF MTN. Come on over. We got all the Legal AF material there. New hot takes, old hot takes, all my body of work, new analysis, new contributors, a new show called Unprecedented about the United States Supreme Court that we're doing every week. I'm doing it with Dina Dahl. Karen Freeman Agnifilo is there doing some new content and all the other contributors you come to know and love from Midas and new ones you've not heard of yet, but you will, like Court Accountability, the number one organization pro-democracy looking at corruption

at the federal court system, judge system, all the way up to Supreme Court. So until my next hot take and my next exclusive content, I'll see you over at Legal AF MTN. In collaboration with the Midas Touch Network, we just launched the Legal AF YouTube channel. Help us build this pro-democracy channel where I'll be curating the top stories, the intersection of law and politics. Go to YouTube now and free subscribe at Legal AF MTN. That's at Legal AF MTN.