Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo has revoked the license of a nurse who wished childbirth injuries on White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
State Attorney General James Uthmeier (R-FL) announced the move to strip Lexie Lawler of her Florida state nursing license in a post on X on Wednesday, praising Ladapo for taking such a “decisive action” and ensuring that those who wish harm on others — particularly those who work in fields like health care — face consequences for doing so.
“Effective today, Lexie Lawler is no longer allowed to practice nursing in Florida. Making statements that wish pain and suffering on anyone, when those statements are directly related to one’s practice, is an ethical red line we should not cross,” Uthmeier posted.
After learning one day earlier that Lawler had been fired for her statements directed at Leavitt, Uthmeier had argued that simply the loss of her job was not adequate: “Being fired isn’t good enough. Any healthcare worker who fails to uphold his or her obligation to provide adequate, safe healthcare should not be licensed in Florida. No excuses!”
Uthmeier issued a similar statement to Fox News Digital, saying, “Women shouldn’t have to worry about a politically driven nurse who wishes them pain and suffering being in the delivery room during childbirth. It’s evil. The Florida Board of Nursing must take action to keep this person away from patients permanently.”
Lawler’s original TikTok video went viral — with a little help from Libs of TikTok — prompting backlash as she expressed her sincere wish for Leavitt to suffer permanent damage from a difficult delivery.
“As a labor and delivery nurse, it gives me great joy to wish Karoline Leavitt a fourth degree tear,” she said, adding, “I hope you f*cking rip from bow to stern and never sh*t normally again, you c*nt.”
A fourth-degree tear is the most severe type of obstetric tear and includes lacerations that extend through the perineal muscles into the rectal lining. Such tears require surgery to repair and six to eight weeks of recovery time — and only 60% to 80% of women will fully recover with no further complications.
A short time after the video went viral, Baptist Health confirmed that Lawler had been let go from her job, releasing the following statement to Boca Raton CBS affiliate 12 News: “The comments made in a social media video by a nurse at one of our facilities do not reflect our values or the standards we expect of health care professionals. Following a prompt review, the individual is no longer employed by our health system.”
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