Alabama effort to thwart out of state abortions blocked
Alabama can’t prosecute people and groups who help women travel across state lines to end a pregnancy, a federal judge ruled Monday in a case that tested how far states can go to prevent residents from getting an abortion.
The decision came in response to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s threat to use criminal conspiracy laws to stop people from providing logistical or other help for out-of-state abortions.
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson said that would violate a person's right to travel and the First Amendment.
"It is one thing for Alabama to outlaw by statute what happens in its own backyard," Thompson wrote. "It is another thing for the State to enforce its value and laws, as chosen by the Attorney General, outside its boundaries by punishing its citizens and others who help individuals travel to another State to engage in conduct that is lawful there but the Attorney General finds to be contrary to Alabama's values and laws."
Thompson compared that to the state going after Alabamians planning a bachelor party with gambling in Las Vegas because casino-style gambling is illegal in Alabama.
The decision was a victory for groups wanting to help women travel for abortions which sued Marshall, including the Yellowhammer Fund, a group funded to help low-income women access abortion.
"Today is a good day for pregnant Alabamians who need lawful out-of-state abortion care," Jenice Fountain, Yellowhammer Fund's executive director, said in a statement. "The efforts of Alabama's attorney general to isolate pregnant people from their communities and support systems has failed."
Marshall's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Out-of-state travel for abortions has doubled
Out-of-state travel for abortions doubled in recent years largely because of abortion bans and restrictions imposed by states after the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision ending the constitutional right to an abortion.
Nearly 1 in 5 people obtaining abortions traveled to another state to do so in 2023 compared with 1 in 10 in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Before Alabama’s strict abortion ban kicked in two years ago, the Yellowhammer Fund offered financial and logistical assistance to women seeking abortions both in Alabama and, if necessary, out of state.
The nonprofit group had prepared for the ban by developing ties with clinics in states where abortion was likely to remain legal and budgeting for more staff.
But those plans were canceled after the attorney general warned − including in an August 2022 interview − “if someone was promoting themselves out as a funder of abortion out of state, then that is potentially criminally actionable for us.”
Yellowhammer stopped sharing information and support for out-of-state abortions. The organization sued Marshall in federal court, as did the West Alabama Women’s Center, a local doctor and another health clinic.
The challengers argued that prosecuting someone for providing information and support for an out-of-state abortion would violate free speech and travel rights.
But Alabama’s attorney general said the state is not barring women themselves from traveling.
“It is a mere reasonable regulation on certain assistance for interstate traveling,” Marshall wrote in a legal filing.