Governor Ron DeSantis signed four medical freedom bills into law on Thursday, doubling down on Florida’s commitment to individual sovereignty and liberty.
The bill signing took place on the long-awaited end date to the national Covid-19 public health emergency status that has lingered for the past three years.
Under the campaign DeSantis is calling “Prescribe Freedom,” the Florida governor signed some of the strongest legislation in the country, not to combat the past pandemic, but to safeguard the liberties of Floridians against future mandates and government overreach. “The danger is now, one of the reasons that we are doing this bill is, yes in Florida we are glad that we stood firm,” DeSantis declared, “But a lot of the elites and the bureaucrats think that this response is how you should do it again in the future if something like that happens.”
The governor signed Senate Bill 252, prohibiting business and governmental entities from “requiring a person to provide certain documentation or requiring a COVID-19 test to gain access to, entry upon, or service from such entities or as a condition of contracting, hiring, promotion, or continued employment.”
The bill also bars the discrimination of persons based on their vaccination status, failure to take a Covid-19 test, or refusal to wear a face mask, requiring businesses and governmental entities to provide exceptions and accommodations for religious and medical reasons.
DeSantis also signed House Bill 1387, which bans gain of function research regarding enhanced potential pandemic pathogens and bans marijuana treatment centers from producing advertisements and labels that are “attractive to children” promoting recreational use for minors.
Florida Surgeon General Joe Ladapo said regarding the new slew of “Prescribe Freedom” bills, “Governor DeSantis has been a pinnacle for freedom, and today we advance the cause of public health and individual autonomy in medical decisions…. From empowering patients to safeguarding children in schools, Florida continues to enshrine individual liberty and lead with common sense.”
The Sunshine State executive also approved Senate Bill 1580, which states, “Health care providers and health care payors have the right to opt out of participation in or payment for certain health care services on the basis of conscience-based objections; providing requirements for a health care provider’s notice and documentation of such objection.”
The bill also shields whistleblowers who uncover information relating to violations made by healthcare providers and healthcare payers, and “prohibiting boards, or the Department of Health if there is no board, from taking disciplinary action against or denying a license to an individual based solely on specified conduct.”
Finally, the fourth bill signed by DeSantis was Senate Bill 238, which, according to a news release by the governor’s office, provides an “exemption from public records requirements for certain information relating to complaints or investigations regarding violations of provisions protecting from discrimination based on health care choices.”
Though many freedom-loving patriots would be jubilant at the sight of Florida’s bold pushback against the Biomedical Security State, left-wing radicals such as the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) of Florida spin the governor’s agenda to fit their progressive ideology.
In a statement made last week on the 2023 Florida Legislative Session, the ACLU declared:
The 2023 Florida Legislative Session was one of the most authoritarian legislative sessions in state history, defined by government overreach and abuse of power and placing Floridians’ freedoms at risk. At the direction of Gov. DeSantis, the state legislature passed bill after bill taking away civil liberties for women, LGBTQ+ youth and families, students, faculty, people arrested and incarcerated in this state, immigrants, and protesters exercising their First Amendment rights.
The executive director for the ACLU of Florida, Tiffany Lennon, said:
During this year’s legislative session, we witnessed once again Governor DeSantis and his allies stripping Floridians of their civil rights and liberties, prioritizing an extreme tactic of government overreach and abuse of power, censoring speech, and harming Floridians.
One cannot help but recall Saul Alinsky’s infamous 1971 primer Rules For Radicals when reading these warped and delusional statements from the ACLU:
Accuse your opponent of what you are doing, to create confusion and to inculcate voters against evidence of your own guilt.
