Another Chapter in the Abortion Wars – Alabama

In case you missed the Opinion Piece in the May 18 – 19, 2024, Wall Street Journal, “Can a State Stop Abortion Travel,” it is worth noting for several reasons. Frankly, I never truly thought about an interstate right to travel because we certainly take that right for granted. In reiterating our right to interstate travel, the judge in this case apparently referred to the Magna Carta which in 1215 promised “all merchants may enter or leave England unharmed or without fear.”

Back to the relevant subject matter in our modern era, the background is that Alabama has a law punishing any “conspiracy formed in this state to do an act beyond the state, which, if done in this state, would be a criminal offense.” The Alabama Attorney General argued that this law could be used to prevent women from seeking advice within Alabama regarding where to travel out-of-state to receive an abortion. Feeling at risk, several non-profit organizations which provide such advice and guidance brought an action against the state seeking a declaratory judgment in order to avoid prosecution under this statute. It is interesting that the Alabama Attorney General didn’t question a woman’s right to leave Alabama to have an abortion in a state where it is legal but aimed to prosecute those who provided advice or guidance.

The federal judge denied the motion to dismiss essentially ruling that if a state can’t directly stop women from leaving Alabama to have an abortion where it is legal, then “it cannot accomplish the same end indirectly by prosecuting those who assist them.”

In our view, the federal judge certainly got this decision right regardless of one’s personal feelings about abortion rights. If organizations or individuals could be prosecuted for providing information about obtaining a service that is legal in another state, then where might this end? Could other family members be prosecuted too, the mother of a young teenager, for example, the airline company that transported them? Again, we feel there is more consensus of opinion among the population on women having a right, albeit a limited right, to abortion. Let’s hope that our judicial system can consistently move in a direction that’s more reasonable than recent history provides. At least in this instance sanity prevailed.