Judge Allows Suit Over Alabama Abortion Travel To Go Forward
A federal judge has allowed a lawsuit against Alabama’s Attorney General Steve Marshall to go forward. The decision comes after Marshall filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that several abortion rights groups lacked standing to sue him for threatening to prosecute anyone who helps an Alabama woman obtain an out-of-state abortion.
On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Myron Thompson declined to dismiss the case, ruling that the abortion rights group had standing and that Marshall’s stated plan to prosecute those who aid in abortions likely violated several key Constitutional rights.Â
“Alabama can no more restrict people from going to, say, California to engage in what is lawful there than California can restrict people from coming to Alabama to do what is lawful here,” U.S. District Court Judge Myron Thompson wrote. “Therefore, the plaintiffs here correctly contend that the Attorney General cannot constitutionally prosecute people for acts taken within the State meant to facilitate lawful out-of-state conduct, including obtaining an abortion.”
The case, which combines several lawsuits from different abortion rights groups, came after Marshall made multiple statements in July 2022 threatening to prosecute those who helped facilitate a legal out-of-state abortion under Alabama’s anti-conspiracy law.Â
One of the suits, filed last year by the Yellowhammer Fund, an Alabama abortion fund, states that
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