A Florida nurse who publicly said she hoped Karoline Leavitt would suffer severe childbirth injuries has been recommended for a relatively minor disciplinary penalty.
The Florida Division of Administrative Hearings (DOAH) recommended that Alexis Lawler be fined $250 and complete education addressing the risks of social media use. The recommendation followed a TikTok video in which Lawler said she hoped the former White House press secretary experienced a “fourth degree tear.”
Lawler posted the video when Leavitt, 28, was about five months pregnant with her second child.
Following the backlash, Lawler was fired from her position at Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital, and her nursing license was temporarily suspended.
Still, the DOAH did not recommend permanently revoking Lawler’s nursing license. The Florida Board of Nursing will make the final determination on any sanctions.
During the hearing, Lawler, 56, said the TikTok was protected speech under the First Amendment and was intended to express her discontent with the government. She also noted that she did not identify her employer in the video.
Administrative Judge Robert Cohen, however, sharply criticized the comments in his recommendation, describing Lawler’s language as “vile.”
“As a nurse who has been recognized by her employer for her compassion, skill, and caring nature for her patients, directing such a specific, intrusive, vile outcome to a specific individual demonstrates a total lack of compassion and professionalism towards a person she has never even met,” Cohen wrote.
A disciplinary board has recommended the lowest-level punishment for nurse Alexis Lawler after she said she hoped Karoline Leavitt would suffer traumatic childbirth injuries.
Leavitt, the former US press secretary, was pregnant with her second child when Lawler said she hoped she would experience a serious medical complication during labor.
Lawler has been a licensed nurse since 2014 and has worked at two hospitals in Florida: St. Mary’s in West Palm Beach, and most recently Baptist Health Boca Raton.
Lawler posted a video on her public TikTok account in January, in which she said: ‘As a labor and delivery nurse, it gives me great joy to wish Karoline Leavitt a fourth-degree tear.
‘I hope that you f***ing rip from bow to stern and never s**t normally again, you c**t.’
A fourth degree tear is a serious medical complication during birth requiring surgical intervention.
Baptist Health received numerous complaints, including one from Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer. The hospital confirmed to Singer that Lawler no longer worked at the hospital, he shared on X January 22.
The DOAH weighed several factors whilst determining whether Lawler’s statements are connected with her ability to perform her job, and whether her license should be revoked.
Lawler was accused of violating the Florida statute related to ‘using abusive, threatening or foul language in front of a patient or directing such language toward a patient.’
The nurse claimed that she was expressing frustrations with the current administration and exercising her First Amendment rights, DOAH documents showed.
In the now-deleted video, Lawler said it would give her ‘great joy’ if Leavitt had ‘a fourth-degree tear’, a serious medical complication that can arise during childbirth
Leavitt was pregnant with her second child when Lawler posted the inflammatory TikTok
According to the documents, she said: ‘I made this video exercising my First Amendment right to free speech on my own time in my own home.’
Cohen wrote that Lawler’s TikTok account being public was a factor and the matter would be treated differently if Lawler shared the video with family and friends over text rather than on a public social media page, court filings showed.
Lawler has not had any prior disciplinary actions taken on her license, and has never been accused of treating a patient differently because of their political beliefs, court documents showed.
Two unnamed Baptist Health patients testified to the DOAH: one of them had Lawler as a nurse, and the other overheard two other nurses at Baptist Health discuss the viral video while she was in the hospital.
Cohen wrote in his recommendation that Lawler: ‘Has learned from this experience, a costly one in terms of her losing her employment of many years with Baptist Health.’
The case will now go on to be reviewed by the Florida Board of Nurses to determine the final outcome.
Following her termination, a spokesman for Baptist Health Boca Raton told CBS 12 at the time: ‘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 healthcare professionals.
Lawler worked at Baptist Health Regional Hospital in Boca Raton, Florida for over a decade with no prior violations to her record aside from a minor parking issue, the hearing noted
‘Following a prompt review, the individual is no longer employed by our health system. While we respect the right to personal opinions, there is no place in healthcare for language or behavior that calls into question a caregiver’s ability to provide compassionate, unbiased care.’
Lawler’s husband, Tim, organized a GoFundMe fundraiser for his wife when she first got fired from Baptist Health nine months ago.
Going forward, Lawler intends to use the donations for ‘civil rights counsel so Lexie can defend herself without being financially bullied into silence,’ according to the GoFundMe.
The GoFundMe description reads: ‘Lexie Lawler was fired for political speech. She is a liberal woman who used her personal social media — on her own time — to sharply criticize a public figure tied to a cruel, harmful administration. Her words were blunt, angry, and unapologetic. They were directed at power, not her workplace.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to Lawler, the White House Press Office and the Florida Board of Nursing for comment.