Alabama’s ban on abortion assistance would “improperly intrude” on other states

The US Department of Justice in Washington, DC is seen in this file photo. The DOJ argued last week that allowing Alabama to prosecute people who help out-of-state women obtain abortions would “improperly intrude” on the affairs of other states. (File)

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) last week joined reproductive health providers in trying to block Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall from prosecuting those who help Alabama women get abortions over state borders.

In a brief filed Aug. 19, the DOJ argued that it is in the country’s interest to preserve “the proper functioning of the federal system and to ensure that a state does not improperly interfere in the affairs of other states.”

The filing states that Alabama’s threats to use criminal conspiracy laws against those who help women leave the state for abortion services violate “a fundamental principle of American constitutional law: states cannot punish their residents for traveling to another state to get involved in lawful conduct in that state.”

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Messages seeking comment were left Monday with the Attorney General’s office, as well as the ACLU and the Advocacy Project, which represents the plaintiffs.

The case, brought by the Yellowhammer Fund and the West Alabama Women’s Center, challenges the Alabama attorney general over public statements he has made suggesting he could prosecute those who help travel interstate for abortion services. Abortion was banned in Alabama in 2022 after the US Supreme Court struck down federal abortion rights protections in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

The DOJ’s brief is in support of the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment, which could it will be pronounced soon. The state also filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue on behalf of the clients.

The attorney general’s office argued that organizations like the Yellowhammer Fund, a nonprofit that provides financial and logistical support for abortion access, cannot claim the right to travel because they are not “natural citizens.” In its filing last week, the Justice Department said the right to travel includes the ability to help others travel, noting that “a corporation certainly can help others with travel.”

The Justice Department filing states that the right to travel is protected by the Constitution and that this right “includes both the right to physically travel between states and the right to do what is lawful within those states.”

“If a state cannot outright prohibit plaintiffs’ clients from traveling to obtain legal abortions out of state, it cannot accomplish the same goal indirectly by prosecuting those who assist them,” the filing states.

The federal government previously intervened in the case opposing Alabama’s motion to dismiss, which U.S. District Judge Myron H. Thompson denied in May, allowing the case to proceed. The US has argued that the right to travel between states is a fundamental American right, dating back to the Articles of Confederation.

The federal filing concludes by urging the court to rule in favor of the plaintiffs, declaring that “Alabama’s threatened lawsuits are unconstitutional because they violate the right to travel,” arguing that Marshall’s threats contradict Supreme Court precedent.

Marshall also argued that “it is essential to ‘identify the source'” of the constitutional right to travel, to which the US stated that “the Alabama AG’s argument is completely contrary to the Supreme Court’s repeated decision not to limit the right to travel to specific doctrines or constitutional provisions.”

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