Abortion would be SO much easier if women remembered to ask men for permission first
And if they remembered that they're property and not agents of their own fate
Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on "I am not too sure.”
H.L. Mencken
When the US Supreme Court overruled almost 50 years of precedent by s**t-canning Roe v. Wade last summer, the first thought of many was to look for silver linings. One of the first positives was that neither the Court nor the states could regulate interstate travel. That meant women from red states that banned abortion at least had the option of traveling to a state where abortion was legal to obtain necessary reproductive care.
After all, interstate travel is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution.
Well, not so fast there, young lady. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall believes he can stomp on that right to protect the lives of unborn children.
(CNN) — Alabama’s Republican attorney general said in a court filing that he has the right to prosecute people who make travel arrangements for pregnant women to have out-of-state abortions.
In a court filing Monday, attorneys for Attorney General Steve Marshall wrote that providing transportation for women in Alabama to leave the state to get an abortion could amount to a “criminal conspiracy.”
There are three ways of looking at this:
This is an absurd overreach and an attempt by the state of Alabama to curtail a constitutionally guaranteed right. Is the state arguing that a pregnant woman has no right to travel outside Alabama until she gives birth?
The “Party of Small Government” is officially dead. How does the state of Alabama intend to police pregnant women? And if they do find a woman who wants to travel out of state, how do they prove that she’s traveling to obtain an abortion rather than, say, to visit family?
Does a “conspiracy” to commit an act illegal in one state make that act illegal even if it’s performed in a state where it’s legal? In other words, can Alabama prosecute someone for an abortion performed in New York or California?
If you think AG Marshall’s filing reeks of something out of The Handmaid’s Tale, your suspicions are spot on. He claims he has the right to police pregnant women and prevent them from traveling out of state if their purpose for traveling is to obtain abortion services.
Does anyone else see a problem with that?
I’m not a Constitutional law scholar, but I have difficulty seeing how that will pass legal muster.
The court filing comes in response to lawsuits against Marshall that was filed in July from two women’s health centers and Yellowhammer Fund, an organization which says it provides “financial and practical support for those who are pregnant and require assistance.” The plaintiffs argue that Marshall violated their constitutional rights by publicly stating that organizations which help pregnant women in Alabama get an abortion out of state could be criminally investigated.
“Alabama can no more regulate out-of-state abortions than another state can deem its laws legalizing abortions to apply to Alabama,” the Yellowhammer Fund lawsuit argues.
Marshall is now asking Judge Myron Thompson to dismiss the lawsuit, saying that helping a woman avoid Alabama’s restrictions by facilitating an abortion elsewhere is a conspiracy.
“The conspiracy is what is being punished, even if the final conduct never occurs,” Marshall’s filing states. “That conduct is Alabama-based and is within Alabama’s power to prohibit.”
So AG Marshall is saying that while he may be unable to prevent my theoretical female partner from leaving Alabama, he could prosecute me for procuring a plane ticket for her. That she receives an abortion outside Alabama is none of the state’s business, nor an action that any person or entity may control, regulate, or punish.
Once a woman is out of Alabama, she is outside its jurisdiction. Or is she?
Procuring a plane ticket hardly constitutes a conspiracy. My partner may contend that she was leaving Alabama to visit family or on a business trip. Or that she wanted to be comfortably outside the Yellowhammer State before writing an editorial telling Gov. Kay Ivey and AG Marshall to respectfully fornicate themselves.
Alabama has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country. In the wake of the Dobbs Supreme Court decision last summer, several Republican-led states passed strict anti-abortion laws, while several others, including Alabama, that had passed so-called trigger laws anticipating an eventual overturn of Roe v. Wade saw their new restrictions go into effect.
The filing got the attention of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, who wrote on X Wednesday, “California will NOT cooperate with any state that attempts to prosecute women or doctors for receiving or providing reproductive care.”
AG Marshall implies that he expects other states to cooperate with Alabama in enforcing its laws. But other states are under no burden to help Alabama enforce its laws. I doubt any blue state in which abortion is legal would assist Alabama in any shape, manner, or form. Alabama’s laws are unenforceable outside their borders, so expecting other states to assist with enforcement is an unreasonable burden.
And then there’s The Handmaid’s Tale aspect of this saga, in which the state feels entitled to monitor and control the movements of pregnant women to protect its “interests.” But what are those “interests,” and, even if the state is able to define them, how do they justify denying women the constitutional right to interstate travel?
Not being a lawyer, of course, I can’t begin to address the legal arguments that might be involved, but I can address the moral and ethical considerations at play here. The short version, at least for me, is that the state of Alabama shouldn’t be allowed to control when, how, or even if pregnant women may travel, in state or out. Suppose a pregnant woman travels outside Alabama, whether for reasons related to her pregnancy or not. It’s none of AG Marshall’s damned business.
In cases like this, blue states should make it clear they want nothing to do with helping red states enforce their anti-abortion laws. If states want to deny women fundamental healthcare rights, they should do the heavy lifting of enforcing their laws. They shouldn’t expect other states to assist them.
Nor should they be complicit in denying women their fundamental Constitutional right to interstate travel.
What’s next? Keeping pregnant women in chains until after they’ve given birth?
Memo to AG Marshall: WOMEN AREN’T PROPERTY.
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