Florida pushed anti-abortion nonprofit to run ads against Amendment 4

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration last year gave an extra $5 million to a network of anti-abortion crisis pregnancy clinics and asked it to run advertisements opposing a proposed abortion amendment, the group confirmed Wednesday.

But the Florida Pregnancy Care Network’s board chose not to run those types of ads, the network’s executive director, Rita Gagliano, said in a statement Wednesday.

Instead, the organization used the money to run more neutral television spots focused on its anti-abortion services and its hotline.

The decision appeared to come at a cost. DeSantis proposed this year repealing the state statute that guarantees the Florida Pregnancy Care Network its contract with the state.

The revelation of the state’s request to the Florida Pregnancy Care Network comes as Republican lawmakers investigate the DeSantis administration’s decision to divert $10 million from a Medicaid settlement to the Hope Florida Foundation, a state-created charity.

The $10 million was then given to two nonprofit groups, which then gave millions to a political committee airing ads against last year’s Amendment 3, which would have allowed recreational marijuana use.

Some Republican lawmakers have questioned whether it was legal, and others have questioned whether it jeopardized the Hope Florida Foundation’s status as a nonprofit. IRS rules limit how much money 501(c)(3) organizations, like the Hope Florida Foundation and Florida Pregnancy Care Network, can spend on political activity.

The Department of Health, which annually gives millions of taxpayer dollars to the pregnancy network, has refused to answer questions over the last week about how much money the state gave the organization, or who in the agency asked the nonprofit to run anti-Amendment 4 ads.

“The Department of Health requested that the Network run public service announcements to raise awareness and connect more Floridians with available services for pregnant women,” it said in a statement Wednesday.

Gagliano said in a statement that the Department of Health asked the nonprofit to use some of its marketing budget “to warn about the potential dangers associated with Amendment 4.”

Florida gives about $29 million a year to the Florida Pregnancy Care Network. State statute, created in 2018, requires the Department of Health to contract with the nonprofit to “promote and support childbirth.” Clinics steer women away from abortion and offer pregnancy testing, ultrasounds and counseling.

DeSantis, in his budget proposal released in February, suggested repealing that statute.

He suggested keeping funding for crisis pregnancy services but opening the contract with the Department of Health to competing bidders.

“We know that the Governor is a staunch, pro-life advocate, and that is what our organization stands for and our mission each and every day,” Gagliano said in a statement. “Knowing that, we can only assume that the line item was an error, because there’s no way the Governor would oppose our shared mission.”

Neither the House nor Senate has moved forward with DeSantis’ idea to strip the pregnancy network of its guaranteed state contract.

DeSantis put the force of his administration behind opposing both the abortion amendment and the recreational marijuana effort. The state aired public service announcements that directed listeners to a website opposing the abortion amendment and ran anti-marijuana public service announcements using opioid settlement money.

State agencies did not respond to multiple inquiries last year about how much the state spent on the ads, and the Legislature has not decided to look into it.

Republican state lawmakers are trying to ban the state from using taxpayer dollars to advocate for or against constitutional amendments, even if the messaging is “limited to factual information.”

The language comes nestled in a bill that could reshape Florida’s ballot initiative process, which is how amendments 3 and 4 were put on the ballot.

The proposals moving through the House and Senate to reform that process are narrower than DeSantis’ suggestion, which would make the ballot initiative process virtually impossible by eliminating third-party petition collection.