TALLAHASSEE — Florida senators will confirm four new medical committee appointees, including one who is a strong opponent of abortion, hormonal birth control and vaccine requirements.
Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Dr. John Littell in November to the 15-member commission charged in part with disciplining Florida doctors who violate state law.
Little temporarily lost his certification from the American Board of Family Medicine in 2023. The committee accused him of spreading misinformation about COVID-19 but reinstated his certification months later.
The Florida Board of Medicine handles disciplinary cases involving medical malpractice, irresponsible prescribing of controlled substances and kickbacks received by doctors for referring patients to certain clinics.
It can also set rules for how doctors practice medicine.
The commission could play a key role as the DeSantis administration seeks to impose restrictions on medical professionals on vaccinations, abortions and the health care of children with gender dysphoria.
If Little is approved by the full Senate, he will be confirmed to a board that already has several members critical of the health measures.
“I believe my values are part of the reason I was asked to join the board,” Little said in testimony before a Senate committee last week.
Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton, asked Little if his hardline stance on abortion would prevent him from looking at the case neutrally.
Little said he is only one of the board members.
“Frankly, I’m very confident that as a physician on the medical board, I can’t make anything happen on my own,” Little said.
DeSantis last appointed new members to the medical board in August 2024. That summer, he appointed Dr. Steven Christie, author of “Abortionists’ 30-Second Rebuttal to Pro-Life Arguments.”
At the time, DeSantis was marshaling state resources to oppose a constitutional amendment aimed at protecting abortion access.
A month before the November election, Christie appeared in a taxpayer-funded public service announcement to talk about Florida’s abortion laws.
In the video, Christie introduced himself as a member of the medical board and used the title to bolster his authority, saying he would “clarify” state abortion laws, which he said were misrepresented.
Another board member, Dr. Hector Vila, served as a witness for the state in a lawsuit over a mandatory 24-hour waiting period before abortion. Vera was first appointed by then-Gov. Rick Scott and reappointed by DeSantis.
Three other board members, Dr. Patrick Hunter, Dr. Matthew Benson and Dr. Gregory Kaufman, have been outspoken opponents of providing children with treatments such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy for gender dysphoria.
During a meeting of the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee last week, Little repeatedly said friends and family told him not to talk about his views but raised them anyway.
(He denied anyone in the state silenced him, although he said he had “informal conversations” about his style of answering questions.)
Little said he believes ivermectin, a drug used to treat parasites, has saved many lives during the coronavirus pandemic. The American Medical Association and the American Pharmacists Association oppose prescribing ivermectin to treat COVID-19 outside of clinical trials.
He said many of the protocols developed by the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration have been proven to be wrong, citing the CDC’s “population control strategy in rural Georgia of lining up 12-year-olds to get shots of Depo-Provera.” It’s unclear what Little was referring to.
He also said he wanted to address the issue of abortion pills being mailed from out of state, but said that was beyond the committee’s purview.
Little also said that young women are being “robbed of their fertility” and that birth control “causes more harm to women than any drug ever invented.”
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says there is no data to support the myth that birth control affects long-term fertility.
Little said women were “like flies” taking the birth control pill Yaz, which has paid out billions of dollars to settle lawsuits from women alleging the drug caused blood clots and heart attacks.
On social media, Little expressed his appreciation for parents who “rightly question the safety of vaccines” and called the requirement to vaccinate their children against COVID-19 “child abuse.”
Republican senators praised Little on Monday, calling him principled.
“I’m grateful for a doctor who knows who he is and what he does,” said Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Pensacola.
In addition to disciplining doctors, medical boards can also set guidelines and rules for best medical practice. At the urging of the DeSantis administration and Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, the commission banned transgender children from receiving medical care in 2023.
In a bill this year to expand vaccine exemptions, lawmakers proposed having medical boards and osteopathic medicine boards approve information about the risks, benefits, safety and efficacy of vaccines and provide that information to parents before they vaccinate their children.
House Speaker Daniel Perez said the bill would not move forward this year.
The House proposal would impose penalties on doctors who turn away unvaccinated patients, including the potential revocation of their medical licenses. DeSantis, first lady Kathy DeSantis and Lada Po are all in favor of requiring doctors to see unvaccinated children.
In addition to Little, the Senate is also poised to approve three of DeSantis’ new appointments to the medical board, including Dr. Gobbi Venkata Balaji, Dr. Lee Gross and Deborah Sargent.
Gross has testified before the U.S. Senate about the impact of the federal bureaucracy on medicine and the direct primary care model he practices in his clinic. In this model, traditional insurance is ignored and patients pay a monthly fee to receive low-cost health care.
Sargent, who is not a doctor, was a trustee of Florida State University. Her husband, Harry Sargent III, is an oil and energy magnate who has donated tens of thousands of dollars to campaigns supporting DeSantis and President Donald Trump.
