Prosecuting assisting doctors and organizations breaches the right to free speech, judge said
An Alabama judge has ruled that the state cannot prosecute people and organizations helping residents to travel for abortion-related reasons, Reuters reported.
Montgomery-based US District Judge Myron Thompson said in a judgment released on Monday that the state of Alabama could not hinder the basic constitutional right to travel. Moreover, prosecuting doctors or organizations that help people travel breaches the right to free speech under the US Constitution’s First Amendment.
According to Reuters, this is among the first judicial decisions issued on the right to travel for abortion. Pro-abortion rights research group the Guttmacher Institute noted that abortion-related travel in the first half of 2023 shot up to more than twice the number recorded in the first half of 2020.
“The court's decision today should send a strong message to any and all anti-abortion politicians who are considering similar efforts to muzzle health care providers or penalize those who assist others in crossing state lines to obtain legal abortion: such attacks on free speech and the fundamental right to travel fly in the face of the Constitution and cannot stand,” said Meagan Burrows of the American Civil Liberties Union in a statement published by Reuters.
The ACLU is representing healthcare provider West Alabama Women's Center, which is among the plaintiffs suing Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall to keep him from being able to prosecute those who help state residents travel for abortion. Marshall had said in a 2022 radio interview that such people and organizations could be considered accomplices to a crime.
Marshall claimed in court that the state had an interest in stopping citizens from aiding in criminalized conduct. However, Thompson said in a statement published by Reuters that accepting Marshall’s argument would mean that the Alabama AG had “within his reach the authority to prosecute Alabamians planning a Las Vegas bachelor party, complete with casinos and gambling, since casino-style gambling is outlawed in Alabama.”
Thompson pointed out that Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurred with the court’s opinion in the 2022 reversal of Roe v. Wade that the Constitution protected travel rights.
Reuters said that the current case could reach the Supreme Court.
The other plaintiffs in the case were Dr. Yashica Robinson and the Yellowhammer Fund, which assists in fundraising for individuals to be able to access abortion. The case is Yellowhammer Fund v. Marshall, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, No. 2:23-cv-00450.
ACLU of Alabama’s Alison Mollman and others worked with Burrows to act for the West Alabama Women's Center. Yellowhammer is represented by Jamila Johnson (The Lawyering Project), Krista Dolan (Southern Poverty Law Center), and others.
Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Seiss is acting for Marshall.
