The Florida Department of Health (DOH) says an advertisement for pro-abortion Amendment 4 is spreading misinformation about induced abortion and the state’s pro-life law, and Governor Ron DeSantis warns local TV stations not to give it airtime.
The DOH sent a cease and desist letter to WCJB-TV and other stations after they aired the advertisement aimed at garnering support for the pro-abortion amendment; abortion advocates claim this to be an abuse of power.
The ad shares the story of Caroline, who was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor while pregnant and underwent an abortion. In the ad, she claims that under current Florida law, she would not have been able to have the abortion she was told she needed to save her life.
Gov. DeSantis notes that state law does allow abortion in emergencies — but in addition to that, an abortion (the intentional and direct killing of a preborn child) wasn’t necessary at all in Caroline’s case.
Currently, preborn children are protected from abortion in Florida once their heartbeat is detectable, usually at about six weeks, though there is an exception for medical emergencies. Amendment 4 would enshrine abortion as a “right” in Florida’s constitution by adding the language: “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s health care provider” (emphasis added).
Because of this broad definition and allowance of abortion for any determined “health” reason, abortion would be legal throughout pregnancy — and those who support this endeavor are now exploiting a woman’s tragic diagnosis with the goal of abortion on demand for any reason through all 40 weeks.
Florida’s law allows abortions to save a mother’s life/health
The state’s abortion law has been updated since Caroline’s abortion, but the new Florida law, which protects preborn children from abortion beginning when a heartbeat is detectable, allows for abortion later in pregnancy if two doctors agree that the woman’s life is in danger. It states that induced abortion is allowed after six weeks if “[t]wo physicians certify in writing that, in reasonable medical judgment, the termination of the pregnancy is necessary to save the pregnant woman’s life or avert a serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman other than a psychological condition.”
This would mean, with the approval of two doctors, anyone in Caroline’s position could still have an induced abortion in the state.
That’s the reason DeSantis and the DOH are fighting to have the ad taken down. They say it lies about the law, putting women at risk.
“The advertisement is not only false; it is dangerous. Women faced with pregnancy complications posing a serious risk of death or substantial and irreversible physical impairment may and should seek medical treatment in Florida,” DOH General Counsel John Wilson wrote. “The Florida Department of Health has been notified that your company is disseminating a political advertisement claiming that current Florida law does not allow physicians to perform abortions necessary to preserve the lives and health of pregnant women.
He added, “While your company enjoys the right to broadcast political advertisements under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article I, section 4 of the Florida Constitution, that right does not include free rein to disseminate false advertisements which, if believed, would likely have a detrimental effect on the lives and health of pregnant women in Florida.”
A cancer diagnosis during pregnancy
In 2022, Caroline was pregnant with her second child when she began to feel that something was not right with her health.
“When I saw the tumor on the MRI, my first thought was, ‘Am I going to be able to see my daughter again,'” she said in the ad. “The doctors know if I did not end 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 4 is going to protect women like me.”
The ad left out key details, however, which were revealed through information Caroline shared with Rolling Stone. That published interview states that Caroline was already 18 weeks along when she started noticing issues with her health, such as losing her ability to say the words she was trying to say. Within a week, she was experiencing stroke-like symptoms — including the inability to talk or read, and feeling confused. At the hospital, she underwent an MRI because a CT scan would have been dangerous for her preborn baby.
Doctors found a large mass in her brain but did not yet know what it was. At that point, it could have been a tumor, a hemorrhagic stroke, or a brain bleed. Her medical team advised her to wait to see if whatever it was might be reabsorbed, but within a week she was worse. At that point, she was about 20 weeks pregnant, and the mass had grown.
She was unable to decipher basic information — like what day it was, or who the president was. Surgery revealed the mass was cancer — a grade IV glioma. Glioblastoma is one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer. It’s the same cancer that Brittany Maynard, Beau Biden, Ted Kennedy, and John McCain had. There is no cure but there is treatment to slow progression, including experimental treatments like Optune, which has shown good results. Still, the survival rate is slim, with less than seven percent of patients surviving for five years. The average length of survival is just eight months.
The outlook was grim for Caroline, but by the time she had an official diagnosis, she was already 21 weeks along in her pregnancy and she decided on an induced abortion — the direct and intentional killing of her preborn baby — under the advice of doctors.
“I just wanted to see my little girl again,” she said. “I wanted to keep my baby as well. But… I wouldn’t be able to do the chemo nor the radiation, and they wanted me to get on that as soon as possible, because my tumor was very fast-growing.”
It was 2022 at that time, and abortion was still legal in Florida. Though news reports don’t state what type of abortion Caroline had, she was at least 21 weeks pregnant; the most common abortion procedure during that time (second trimester) is a D&E dismemberment abortion, which typically takes two to three days and involves removing the baby from the womb in pieces using a Sopher clamp to pull off her arms and legs and crush her skull. The other option at 21 weeks would be an induction abortion, in which the baby is injected with digoxin, causing the baby to go into cardiac arrest and die before delivery. The mother delivers a stillborn baby. That also takes a couple of days to carry out.
If Caroline had undergone a preterm delivery and doctors had worked to save her baby’s life, this would not have been considered an induced abortion, regardless of false claims by abortion advocates.
Induced abortion was not necessary
Caroline called the abortion “absolutely the hardest decision I’ve ever made in my life.” But it wasn’t a choice she had to make — and in that respect, her doctors failed her and her family.
At 21 weeks (which is when she received the final diagnosis of glioblastoma), children have survived with medical care when born prematurely. These micro-preemies are pushing the perceived age of viability earlier into pregnancy thanks to advances in medical care. Though not every hospital or doctor can provide the precise care these tiny babies need, there are at least six hospitals in Florida that are equipped to care for these young babies, according to the website 22weeker.com.
In addition, a study published by NeuroSciences in 2015 “concluded that although recurrent and treated GBM [glioblastoma] is rarely associated with pregnancy and carries dismal prognosis, …if it occurs, it can still be carried, and a multidisciplinary team work is the key for successful outcome.”
Additional research that examined the data from two pregnant women with glioblastoma and was published by Surgical Neurology International reported, “The available literature data suggest that brain surgery during pregnancy can be performed with acceptable risk for mother and fetus; XRT [radiotherapy] could be administered with increased even though acceptable risks for the fetus; and data are not sufficient to recommend the use of TMZ [temozolomide] in pregnancy. Mother has a poor prognosis; fetus’ prognosis depends on mother’s condition and therapy.”
In those two cases, one woman was diagnosed at 14 weeks pregnant and the other at 28 weeks pregnant. The former wanted to protect her baby and underwent surgery. A few months later, the woman received a shunt for hydrocephalus that had developed. Two to three months after diagnosis, she had an elective C-section and began more aggressive treatments. Her baby survived and she lived for 16 months after delivery. The latter had a C-section two days after meeting with doctors and her baby survived. The mother survived for 46 months — more than three years — after giving birth.
It’s unclear if Caroline’s doctors provided her with these options or convinced her that she needed an induced abortion. If they presented abortion as the only viable option, Caroline’s doctors put her in a horrific position during an already frightening and heartbreaking time in her life. They led her to believe her baby had to die so that she might live, pushing her to end the life of her baby and the one sibling her daughter had — a lifelong friend who could have been a blessing and a comfort to her for decades after Caroline’s death.
Even if her baby had not survived a preterm birth, this would not have been considered an abortion, because the goal of early delivery would not have been to intentionally cause the child’s death but to save the mother.
Caroline’s story is one of heartache and tragedy, but had she been encouraged by her doctors to connect with other doctors and hospitals that could offer her preterm delivery and care for her premature baby, it could have also been one of joy and love.
