Alabama abortion assistance ban would ‘intrude’ on other states

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Alander Rocha | Alabama Reflector

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) last week sided with reproductive health providers seeking to stop Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall from prosecuting those who help Alabama women obtain abortions across state lines.

In a brief filed on Aug. 19, the DOJ argued that it’s in the country’s best interest to preserve “the proper functioning of the federal system and ensure that one state does not improperly intrude into the affairs of other states.”

The filing states that Alabama’s threats to use criminal conspiracy laws against those who help women leave the state for abortion services violate a “bedrock principle of American constitutional law: states cannot punish their residents for traveling to another state to engage in conduct that is lawful in that state.”

Messages seeking comment were left Monday with the office of the Attorney General as well as the ACLU and the Lawyering Project, which represent the plaintiffs.

More: 'A floor, not a ceiling': Alabama in a post-Roe vs. Wade world

The case, brought by the Yellowhammer Fund and the West Alabama Women’s Center, challenges the Alabama Attorney General’s over public statements he made suggesting he could prosecute those aiding interstate travel for abortion services. Abortion was banned in Alabama in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down federal abortion rights protections in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

The DOJ brief is in support of the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment, which could be ruled on soon. The state also filed a motion for summary judgement, arguing that plaintiffs lack standing to sue on behalf of clients.

The attorney general’s office has argued that organizations like Yellowhammer Fund, a nonprofit that provides financial and logistical support for abortion access, cannot claim a right to travel because they are not “flesh and blood, physical citizens.” In its filing last week, the Justice Department said that the right to travel also encompasses the ability to assist others with travel, noting that “a corporation can certainly assist others with travel.”

The Justice Department’s filing asserts that the right to travel is protected under the Constitution and that this right “includes the right both to move physically between states and to do what is lawful in those states.”

“If a state cannot outright prohibit the plaintiffs’ clients from traveling to receive lawful out-of-state abortions, it cannot accomplish the same end indirectly by prosecuting those who assist them,” the filing said.

More: Alabama OB-GYN residencies dropped over 21% after Dobbs, state abortion ban, analysis says

The federal government previously intervened in the case opposing Alabama’s motion to dismiss, which U.S. District Judge Myron H. Thompson denied in May, allowing the case to proceed. The U.S. argued that the right to travel between states was a fundamental American right, dating back to the Articles of Confederation.

The federal filing concludes by urging the court to rule in favor of the plaintiffs, stating that “Alabama’s threatened prosecutions are unconstitutional as they violate the right to travel,” arguing that Marshall’s threats contradict Supreme Court precedent.

Marshall also argued that “it is crucial to ‘identify the source’” of the constitutional right to travel, to which the U.S. stated the “Alabama AG’s argument is flatly contrary to the Supreme Court’s repeated decision not to limit the right to travel only to specific doctrines or constitutional provisions.”

Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, an independent nonprofit website covering politics and policy in state capitals around the nation.

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Alabama abortion assistance ban would ‘intrude’ on other states

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