Ron DeSantis and Jennifer Canady must arrest me for accurate forced birth writing

State government is threatening local TV station workers with arrest for running Amendment 4 ads making the same points I do about the care Canady's law denies women. So lock me up.

A Florida woman carrying a fetus suffering from the fatal Potter Syndrome is required to give birth knowing the fetus will die — and to endure all health risks that come with that experience. And that’s just one “exception” to forced birth requirements that is not an “exception.”

We only know this with certainty about Potter Syndrome because Lakeland Regional Health refused to allow a suffering pregnant woman to end her pregnancy at 23 weeks in 2023 — and the woman was brave enough to talk about it. No one has ever publicly adjudicated it a hospital mistake. I’ve given them many, many chances to do so.

Indeed, Florida and its cowardly hospitals refuse to itemize the care for miscarriage, pregnancy complication, and conditions that destroy fetal viability that women can expect to receive (or not receive) under Rep. Jennifer Canady, R-Lakeland’s 6-week forced birth law. I have asked for this itemization multiple times in multiple forums. I’ve always been ignored.

I have no idea — and neither do you, neither does Jennifer Canady or Lakeland Mayor Bill Mutz or any other so-called “pro-lifers” — what procedures doctors are allowed or not allowed to perform to protect the health of a pregnant mother. I suspect LRH CEO Danielle Drummond knows; but she won’t say. That’s not information the public needs about its hospital, apparently.

Lock me up, Ron and Jennifer

So when Amendment 4 run ads saying that voting for Amendment 4 is only way to protect the health of pregnant women, it is entirely correct. And yet, the Ron DeSantis/Jennifer Canady forced birth enforcement apparatus is now threatening to arrest people who work at TV stations who run Amendment 4 ads making the same entirely accurate point I’m making.

Again, this is what a weak and petty dictatorship looks like. And if DeSantis and Canady and the entire pathetic forced birth coercion apparatus believes any of its own bullshit, I must get one of these letters.

In the immortal words of Deion, I ain’t hard to find, John Wilson, general counsel of the Florida Department of Health.

If you don’t send me a letter, and then you don’t arrest me when I ignore it, Ron and Jennifer, you betray your posturing weakness publicly, yet again.

And if you do arrest me for accurate forced birth writing, you fill a hole in my life exactly that size. I will absolutely demand a trial.

Your move, cowards.

A public records request for DoH and AHCA

In the meantime, I have correspondence of my own for DoH and the Florida Agency of Health Care Administration (AHCA). They will, of course, ignore it, because we live in a petty and weak dictatorship here in Florida.

Hello. My name is Billy Townsend. I'm an independent writer and researcher. My phone number is XXX-XXX-XXXX. 

Pursuant to Florida statutes, I am requesting all written records documenting exceptions granted to Florida's 6-week abortion ban. 

This includes exceptions related to mother's life, health, rape, and/or incest. I am trying to understand how many exceptions to 6-week forced birth Florida has granted. I want to know who is the state custodian of these state records. I obviously have no interest in the identities of the women or doctors involved. Summary data is preferable to individual exception records, if it exists. Thus, any central state record or database of total exceptions granted to 6-week forced birth is the top priority of this request.

If no such central data exists, specific examples of records requested include, but are not limited to:

1. All documents in which *[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” as outlined in the recent threatening letter state health officials sent to media outlets. 

2. Any written record of the two-physician requirement being waived in the case of an emergency medical procedure, as stated in the same threatening letter.

3. Any state or local law enforcement documents used to justify a rape or incest exception that are in possession of state health officials.

Thank you. Please contact me with any questions.

Recent polling shows Amendment 4 at 61 percent (60 percent is the winning number), with some undecideds still out there.

If you’re on the fence about whether to end Florida’s forced birth war before it really starts so we can move on to other pressing matters about our future, you should consider the state’s cowardice and its lying in these media threats.

Amendment 4 is the only way to protect the health of your pregnant daughter, wife, sister, etc. from abject moral cowards who won’t even tell you what care they can expect to receive or be denied.

If you doubt me, watch to see if I get arrested.