Ron DeSantis is pulling out all the stops on Torpedo Florida’s Abortion Ballot Measure

Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis—heated up his failed political challenge with the former President Donald Trump—is currently mobilizing its government against a measure to restore abortion rights in Florida.

A state agency has launched a new website attacking the ballot measure. Another threatening TV station ran ads supporting it. And last Friday, the Florida Secretary of State announced it a report attacking the petition had abortion on the November ballot — a month after a new police unit created by DeSantis began knocking on the doors of Florida voters who signed that petition.

These moves have brought DeSantis under harsh criticism from the Florida Democratic Party and Federal Communications Commissionas well as from civil liberties and women’s health activists across the state.

“This arbitrary overreach is extremely dangerous and has real, life-threatening consequences for women across Florida,” the American Civil Liberties Union said. a statement.

DeSantis’s campaign was innovative and widespread, even for Florida. In early September, reports surfaced that the state’s newly formed election police unit has been knocking on the doors of voters who signed a petition to put the abortion measure, known as Amendment 4, on the November ballot. Police said , officially, the interviews were part of a larger investigation into the signature-gathering process. (State officials confirmed months ago that supporters of Amendment 4 had collected the 100,000 valid signatures needed to get it on the ballot.)

At about the same time, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration — the agency typically tasked with licensing hospitals and nursing homes — launched a new website that claims to fact-check elements of Amendment 4. Titled “Florida is protecting life,” the site criticized “fearmongers” and suggested that Florida could become “an abortion tourism destination state” if the measure passes. The Florida Department of Health has since followed up with a series The letters stopped to television stations, asking them to stop airing ads from supporters of Amendment 4.

As if all of that wasn’t suspicious enough, the Florida Secretary of State took the matter further last Friday, by issued a 348-page report accused supporters of submitting hundreds of forged and fraudulent signatures. ACLU of Florida say those accusations applies to only a tiny fraction of the tens of thousands of signatures supporters have collected—and there is no legal significance as to whether the measure will appear on next month’s ballot Are not. Of course, that hasn’t stopped anti-abortion activists filed a fourth lawsuit abolish abortion, citing statements in the secretary of state’s investigation.

If passed, Amendment 4 would effectively overturn Florida’s six-week abortion ban and ban future restrictions on the procedure before 24 weeks or longer. Similar ballot measures have passed in conservative states including Kansas and Ohio.

But even before DeSantis’ scheme, Amendment 4 seemed unlikely to apply in Florida; State law sets a 60% threshold for passing state constitutional amendments, and recent polling has found that less than half of likely voters Supports new protections for abortion.