SCOTUS keeps emergency abortions for those at health risk in Idaho
The Supreme Court dismissed the emergency abortion case, reversing its January decision to halt the procedures.
More than two years after most abortions became illegal in Alabama, the West Alabama Women’s Center still fields at least five calls a day from women seeking to end a pregnancy.
The staff has to tell callers they no longer provide abortion services.
“And then when they’re told `No,’ they ask, `All right. Well, where do I get one?” Robin Marty, the center’s executive director, told USA TODAY. “And that’s when we can’t say anything.”
The center is afraid of triggering an investigation from Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, who has threatened to bring criminal conspiracy charges against organizations that help Alabamians get the procedure out of state.
“We made it clear that we would not be doing anything that could possibly risk any of our staff getting arrested,” Marty said.
More: Two years ago, SCOTUS overturned the right to an abortion. Here is how each state changed
A federal judge may soon rule on whether Marshall has the power to do that, and the decision could have national repercussions.
If Marshall is successful, other anti-abortion states could follow his lead as out-of-state abortions have significantly increased since the Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to an abortion.
A loss for abortion rights advocates could further fire them up before the November election. Abortion access is already a top campaign theme for Vice President Kamala Harris, and the Biden administration has weighed in on the side of the organizations challenging Alabama’s attorney general.
The battle could find its way to the Supreme Court.
More: Supreme Court allowed emergency abortions in Idaho. Doctors say it’s not enough.
While the court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade didn’t address the issue of out-of-state abortions in the majority’s opinion, one conservative justice did mention it.
In a concurring opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh rhetorically asked if a state can stop one of its residents from traveling to another state to get an abortion. “In my view, the answer is no, based on the constitutional right to interstate travel,” Kavanaugh wrote.
But Alabama’s attorney general says 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.
A violation of free speech and travel rights?
Before the state’s strict abortion ban kicked in, the Yellowhammer Fund offered financial and logistical assistance to women seeking abortions both in Alabama and, if necessary, in another state.
The nonprofit had prepared for the ban by developing relationships with clinics in states where abortion was likely to remain legal. The group developed referral and case management systems to respond to the expected increase in requests and planned for a bigger budget and more staff, according to a legal filing.
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.
More: Supreme Court preserves access to widely used abortion medication mifepristone
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson in Montgomery could rule any day.
The challengers argue that prosecuting someone for providing information and support for an out-of-state abortion would violate free speech and travel rights.
“If the attorney general’s attempt to go after helpers were sanctioned here, that could send a very strong and dangerous signal to anti-abortion politicians in other states who might resort to similar attempts to effectively impose what is a national ban on abortion for their residents,” said Meagan Burrows, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who represents the health care providers challenging Marshall.
The state’s attorney general counters in filings that Alabama’s “legitimate objectives of prohibiting elective abortions and conspiracies to procure them cannot be achieved” if groups can evade the ban “so long as they target out-of-state destinations.”
Out-of-state abortions 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.
Patients in southern states, which have the most restrictive laws in the country, had to travel across multiple state lines for care. Alabamians may have to go as far as North Carolina, Virginia, or Illinois for an abortion.
While the West Alabama Women’s Center lists a variety of resources for pregnant women on its website, including those related to abortion, the center said they can’t do more than refer callers there.
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“They ask us, `Which one should I click on?” Marty said. “And we can’t say.”
Patients’ reactions to the staff’s inability to answer basic questions, Marty said, include everything from confusion to anger and depression.
One woman, a staffer later recounted, said in frustration: “Well, if you can’t help me, I’m just going to try and drive my car into a tree, or I’ll pay somebody to beat me up because I’m not having this baby.”
“And then she hung up,” Marty said.
`Testing the waters’
While the National Right to Life Committee, the country’s oldest and biggest anti-abortion group, is keeping an eye on the litigation, it’s not promoting Alabama’s approach.
Ingrid Duran, who works on state legislative issues for the group, said she doubts that Alabama will win the case − or that Marshall’s approach is an effective strategy for protecting fetal life.
Instead, the group is backing efforts to criminalize helping a minor get an abortion – in or out of state – without the consent of a parent.
“This is more about protecting parental rights,” she said of laws passed in Idaho and Tennessee.
But Duran said both those states’ laws and Alabama’s threat of prosecution are part of the anti-abortion movement’s exploration of the new territory created by the end of Roe v. Wade.
“They’re testing the waters to see what is permissible,” she said. “What can states do to protect unborn life?”
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Publish date : 2024-08-26 23:14:00
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