Florida’s Republican governor suspended one of the state’s top prosecutors after the Tampa-area Democrat pledged that he would not enforce the state’s new law on abortion and would hesitate to enforce any laws restricting gender reassignment therapy or what he referred to as the “criminalization” of transgender people.

At a news conference Thursday, Governor DeSantis said he had signed an executive order removing the state attorney for Florida’s 13th judicial district, Andrew Warren, effective immediately. The district covers Hillsborough County, and a county judge, Susan Lopez, was appointed to the position in the interim.

“Over the last few years individual prosecutors take it upon themselves to determine which laws they like and will enforce, and which laws they don’t like and won’t enforce, and the results of this in cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco have been catastrophic,” Mr. DeSantis said.

The move puts Florida front-and-center in a growing national debate over the efficacy of reform-minded prosecutors. Voters in San Francisco ousted District Attorney Chesa Boudin in a recall election for refusing to prosecute low-level crimes and allowing the city’s criminal class to flourish. A similar effort is under way to remove a like-minded district attorney in Los Angeles, George Gascon.

Many of these prosecutors have been bankrolled by the Hungarian billionaire George Soros, who asserted in a Wall Street Journal opinion article this week that the agenda he is promoting is “popular” and “effective.”

“This agenda includes prioritizing the resources of the criminal-justice system to protect people against violent crime,” Mr. Soros said. “It urges that we treat drug addiction as a disease, not a crime. And it seeks to end the criminalization of poverty and mental illness​.

“​The goal is not defunding the police but restoring trust between the police and the policed, a partnership that fosters the solving of crimes,” he added.

Mr. Warren, who has held the position since 2017, has twice been elected by Hillsborough County voters.

In June 2021, Mr. Warren signed a pledge along with dozens of other prosecutors around the country decrying what the group called efforts to “criminalize” transgender people and gender-reassignment therapies. The statement was also signed by Monique Worrell, the state attorney for Florida’s 9th district, which covers Osceola and Orange counties in central Florida.

Mr. DeSantis noted that Florida has no laws criminalizing gender-reassignment treatment. A state law banning classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grades, widely criticized by progressives, took effect July 1.

More recently, Mr. Warren signed a similar pledge vowing not to enforce a law passed in April that outlaws abortions after 15 weeks. He is the only Florida prosecutor to have signed the second pledge.

Mr. DeSantis, who is up for re-election in November, was immediately pilloried by his Democratic electoral opponents for the move Thursday. The agriculture commissioner, Nikki Fried, called it a “politically motivated attack on a universally respected State Attorney democratically elected to exercise prosecutorial discretion.” She called Mr. DeSantis a “pathetic bully.”

Congressman Charlie Crist called the action “that of a wannabe dictator who puts partisan politics first.”

The executive order cited “neglect of duty” and incompetence as rationale for the removal. The prosecutor’s decision to “knowingly permit” criminal activity in his district and his “blanket refusal” to enforce other laws “is not an exercise of prosecutorial discretion but tantamount to a functional veto of state law,” the order said.

“Not enforcing the law, that’s a neglect of duty,” Mr. DeSantis said. “That, quite frankly, is incompetence by Florida law. Saying you’re not going to enforce the law is a dereliction of duty.”