Late last week, Alabama’s GOP Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a court filing that he intends to prosecute abortion providers if they help state residents obtain the procedure out-of-state, according to several reports.
According to The Hill, Marshall argued that people who organize travel for a pregnant woman to undergo an abortion are participating in a “criminal conspiracy,” as abortion is illegal in Alabama.
“An elective abortion performed in Alabama would be a criminal offense; thus, a conspiracy formed in the State to have that same act performed outside the State is illegal,” the brief stated.
“The conspiracy is what is being punished, even if the final conduct never occurs,” Marshall said in the filing. “That conduct is Alabama-based and is within Alabama’s power to prohibit.”
The court filing came in response to a lawsuit filed by abortion providers, which Marshall wants dismissed.
“Alabama can no more regulate out-of-state abortions than another state can deem its laws legalizing abortions to apply to Alabama,” Yellowhammer Fund, an abortion rights group, reportedly argued in the case.
Abortion travel, which some have described as “abortion tourism,” became another talking point for the pro-abortion lobby after the fall of Roe v. Wade last year. Since then, many Republican-led states have passed legislation protecting the unborn. Pro-abortion lawmakers, on the other hand, have worked to create “safe havens” for abortion access in states like California and New York.
This year, Idaho took its legislation against this a step further. Lawmakers introduced a first-of-its-kind legislation surrounding “abortion trafficking,” which GOP Gov. Brad Little signed into law. The legislation ensures that adults do not take pregnant minors across state lines to terminate a pregnancy.
“An adult who, with the intent to conceal an abortion from the parents or guardian of a pregnant, un-emancipated minor, either procures an abortion … or obtains an abortion-inducing drug for the pregnant minor to use for an abortion by recruiting, harboring, or transporting the pregnant minor within this state commits the crime of abortion trafficking,” the law, H.B. 242, states, which Townhall covered. Those who break the law could face two to five years behind bars and be sued by the child’s parent or legal guardian.