The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday claimed the Constitution protects a “right” to abortion travel, and gave its support to two lawsuits that seek to block Alabama from prosecuting those who facilitate cross-state travel for abortion.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said that people who help a woman or girl travel out of the pro-life state for an abortion which would have been illegal in Alabama could be charged with conspiracy. Attorney General Merrick Garland, however, said in a statement that “bedrock constitutional principles dictate that women who reside in states that have banned access to comprehensive reproductive care must remain free to seek that care in states where it is legal.”
The DOJ issued a statement of interest in support of the lawsuits, arguing that prosecutions for abortion travel would be unconstitutional. One of the lawsuits was filed by The Legal Voice activist group on behalf of Nampa attorney Lourdes Matsumoto, the Northwest Abortion Access Fund, and the Indigenous Idaho Alliance. Each assists minors in obtaining abortions. The second lawsuit was filed by the Yellowhammer Fund. The lawsuits claim that the state’s pro-life laws are “draconian,” and they are seeking a legal ruling clarifying that Marshall can’t use anti-conspiracy laws to prosecute those who aid women and girls in undergoing out-of-state abortions.
Notably, the DOJ recently prosecuted nine pro-life activists for “conspiracy against rights” and FACE Act violations for entering a D.C. abortion facility in an attempt to halt the killing of preborn children that day. According to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the U.S. Constitution “does not confer a right to abortion.” That decision returned abortion regulations “to the people and their elected representatives.”
READ: Idaho man and his mother arrested for kidnapping minor to take out-of-state for abortion
“Although many minors faced with an unintended pregnancy choose to involve their parents, many do not,” reads the lawsuit by The Legal Voice. “There are minors who cannot or do not have access to their parents. There are minors who are afraid to anger or disappoint their parents, as well as those who face the threat of violence in their homes.”
A recent case out of Idaho highlights the need for abortion trafficking laws. A 15-year-old was brought from Idaho to Oregon for an unwanted abortion without her parents’ knowledge by her 18-year-old boyfriend and his mother, who have now been arrested on kidnapping charges. The 18-year-old man also faces charges of rape and of producing child sexually exploitative material. A U.S. judge on Thursday, however, blocked Idaho from enforcing its law which makes it a crime to help a minor cross state lines for an abortion without her parents’ consent.
Human trafficking affects 27.6 million people across the world, according to the U.S. Department of State, and those who take sex abuse victims across state lines for an abortion are often the very predators who are abusing and exploiting them.
