(Image via msn.com / Axios) 

Staff Writer: Gwen Pichette

Email: gpichette@umassd.edu

A federal judge has ruled that the state of Alabama cannot prosecute doctors who help patients seek an out-of-state abortion.

This is notable, considering Alabama notoriously has one of the strictest abortion bans out of the 50 U.S. states. 

Alabama’s ban states that any woman seeking an abortion at any stage will be charged with a felony. Physicians who perform the procedure face up to 99 years in prison if charged. 

There are no exceptions for abortion in the case of rape or incest. 

This newest ruling has gained much attention considering the slew of abortion and birth control restrictions that have been implemented in predominantly Southern states since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Yet this is one of the first ever decisions made specifically over the right to travel to seek abortions. 

What exactly does the ruling state? 

United States District Judge Myron Thompson declared that the state cannot interfere with one’s basic constitutional right to travel, and that prosecuting doctors for aiding patients impedes the First Amendment right to free speech. 

This comes after medical providers sued Alabama Attorney Steve Marshall after he suggested that they could face persecution under anti-conspiracy laws.

One lawsuit comes from the Yellowhammer Fund, a group forced to halt financial assistance to low-income abortion patients due to concerns over being prosecuted. 

The second lawsuit was filed by an obstetrician along with two former abortion clinics that have continued to provide contraception despite Alabama’s heavy restrictions.

An automated response to questions regarding the lawsuit, as provided by Associated Press, reads, “Attorney General Marshall will continue to vigorously enforce Alabama laws protecting unborn life which include the Human Life Protection Act. That includes abortion providers conspiring to violate the Act.”

Thompson later pointed out the absurdity of imposing travel restrictions for abortion in an opinion piece, stating the following:

“It is one thing for Alabama to outlaw by statute what happens in its own backyard. It is another thing for the state to enforce its values and laws, as chosen by the attorney general, outside its boundaries by punishing its citizens and others who help individuals travel to another state to engage in conduct that is lawful there but the attorney general finds to be contrary to Alabama’s values and law.” 

This ruling came the very same day it was announced that Trump would be withholding funds from nine of Planned Parenthood’s affiliates.  

Why exactly were funds frozen? 

Funds were frozen because the program fell under the Title X category, one of the many programs that was expected to be endangered under the newest administration’s halting of “financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the Green New Deal.”

Yet, the family funding for Planned Parenthood is much more than that according to Alexis McGill Johnson, the CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, who said the withholding of funds will be catastrophic in a press release: 

“We know what happens when health care providers cannot use Title X funding: People across the country suffer, cancers go undetected, access to birth control is severely reduced, and the nation’s STI crisis worsens.” 

This has also raised additional concerns about undermining the necessary congressional authority to determine federal spending.

Abortion continues to be a point of contention for other states—like Texas, which is juggling lawsuits involving funding for out-of-state abortions. 

On the third of April, merely two days after the Alabama abortion ruling, the San Antonio City Council voted to spend $100,000 on aiding those who needed to obtain an out-of-state abortion. 

This was almost immediately faced with a lawsuit when Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the state in court, arguing that the city was “transparently attempting to undermine and subvert Texas law and public policy.”

“I’ve got one job up here, and it’s to protect the people I represent,” councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda said at the hearing, “This is how San Antonio is stepping up when other entities will not.”

The Alabama ruling is expected to set a precedent for future lawsuits regarding travel bans and out of state abortions. Jenice Fountain, the executive director of the Yellowhammer Fund, said in a statement:

“Today is a good day for pregnant Alabamians who need lawful out-of-state abortion care. The efforts of Alabama’s attorney general to isolate pregnant people from their communities and support systems has failed.”