A federal judge in Florida on Thursday ordered the state to stop threatening TV stations with criminal charges if they run a political ad in support of a referendum that would repeal the state’s six-week abortion ban.

Proponents of Amendment 4 sued the state on Wednesday over letters from the Florida Department of Health to broadcast stations around the state, threatening “criminal proceedings” if they ran the ads.

U.S. District Chief Judge Mark Walker said the state’s actions amount to “unconstitutional coercion” and violate the First Amendment.

“Whether it’s a woman’s right to choose, or the right to talk about it,” Walker wrote, “the First Amendment prohibits the State of Florida from trampling” on the abortion rights proponents’ freedom of speech.

The plaintiff in the case, Floridians Protecting Freedom, celebrated Walker’s injunction against the state, which lasts until Oct. 29 — a week before the Nov. 5 election.

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“This critical initial victory is a triumph for every Floridian who believes in democracy and the sanctity of the First Amendment,” said Lauren Brenzel of Yes on 4 Florida, the campaign arm of the organization. “The court has affirmed what we’ve known all along: The government cannot silence the truth about Florida’s extreme abortion ban.”

Julia Friedland, Gov. Ron DeSantis’s deputy press secretary, denounced the decision as “another order that excites the press.”

“The ads are unequivocally false and put the lives and health of pregnant women at risk,” she said. “Florida’s heartbeat protection law always protects the life of a mother and includes exceptions for victims of rape, incest, and human trafficking.”

In the ad, Caroline Williams, a parent in Florida, describes how the state’s current abortion ban would have endangered her life if it had been enacted a couple of years ago. She does not say at what point in her pregnancy she obtained the abortion.

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“Doctors knew that 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,” she says in the ad.

The Department of Health letter claiming the ad is “categorically false” states that “if preserving the life and health of the fetus conflicts with preserving the life and health of the pregnant woman, the physician must consider preserving the woman’s life and health the overriding and superior concern.”

Florida’s abortion law carves out limited exceptions that critics say are often inaccessible and pose a danger to women. The statute calls for two physicians to certify in writing that terminating the pregnancy is necessary to save a pregnant woman’s life or avert a serious health crisis.

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The law also permits abortions in the case of rape, incest or human trafficking so long as the fetus is not more than 15 weeks. Proponents of Yes on 4 say those exceptions can also be challenging to access.

The ad is airing on more than 50 stations across the state. The state sent cease-and-desist letters to at least two TV stations, but only one pulled it off air, according to Floridians Protecting Freedom, the main group backing the “Yes on 4” campaign.

The group called the letters “blatant government interference” and a violation of the First Amendment.

DeSantis and his administration have been using state agencies to attack the proposed amendment ahead of the Nov. 5 general election.

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration launched a website last month that supports the arguments against the amendment. The website claims that “Amendment 4 threatens women’s safety” and says “don’t let the fearmongers lie to you.”

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The Florida Supreme Court rejected a petition filed by Palm Beach County seeking to stop the agency from using its website to campaign against the amendment.

Abortion rights opponents filed a separate lawsuit this week on the heels of a recent state report questioning the validity of voter signatures on petitions that put the issue on the ballot.

Proponents of the amendment to enshrine abortion rights into the state’s constitution were required to collect 891,523 signatures verified by the state Division of Elections by Feb. 1.

Floridians Protecting Freedom, the umbrella group that helped coordinate the signature collection effort across the state, said it gathered more than 1 million petition signatures for the amendment a month before the deadline. The state verified 910,946 of those signatures in January.

Investigators from Florida’s Office of Election Crimes and Security in February and March announced charges against three people accused of submitting 50 fraudulent petitions for the abortion amendment.

Last month, elections police officers showed up at the homes of some people who had signed the petitions, asking them to validate their signatures and leaving at least one man feeling “shaken.”