USA – “Impossible to enforce”: Attempts to ban abortion travel are scare tactics, legal expert says

It's not clear if abortion travel bans are constitutional or not. For now, they are mostly used as intimidation

By NICOLE KARLIS
JANUARY 30, 2024

Last week, a Tennessee Republican lawmaker proposed legislation that could imprison any adult who "recruits, harbors or transports" a pregnant minor to get out-of-state abortion care. Parents and legal guardians would be exempt, but any other adult helping a minor — say an aunt or friend or abortion care provider — despite receiving the minor’s permission, would be subject to the penalty of a Class C felony which is three to 15 years in jail.

In a press statement, Ashley Coffield in the release, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi said such a measure would have a “chilling effect” on trusted adults and helpers who assist minors in accessing abortion care. It could be especially harmful to minors living in abusive households.

Continued: https://www.salon.com/2024/01/30/impossible-to-enforce-attempts-to-ban-abortion-travel-are-scare-tactics-legal-expert-says/

30.01.2024

Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi

Reproductive Rights Task Force

Alito said Dobbs would lower the temperature. Instead, it fanned the flames of abortion extremism.

Federal prosecutions of abortion-related crimes are way up in the year since the court overturned Roe v. Wade.

by BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN
06/24/2023

When the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion a year ago, Justice Samuel Alito suggested that returning the issue to lawmakers might alleviate extremism on both sides of the issue.

Roe v. Wade and other rulings protecting abortion, Alito wrote, had “enflamed debate,” “deepened division,” and prevented a “national settlement of the abortion issue.”

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/24/abortion-extremist-violence-dobbs-00103539

Fears mount around ‘catastrophic’ abortion pills case as decision nears
Conservative judges likely to decide fate of Texas lawsuit seeking to ban mifepristone nationwide

By Caroline Kitchener and Perry Stein
February 5, 2023

Abortion rights advocates delivered a stark warning to the Biden administration’s top health official in a private meeting last week: It’s time to take seriously “fringe” threats that could wind up blocking abortion access across the country. Driving their anxiety is a Texas lawsuit brought by conservative groups seeking to revoke the decades-old government approval of a key abortion drug.

The suit has been widely ridiculed by legal experts as rooted in baseless and debunked arguments. But in recent weeks, abortion rights advocates and some in the Biden administration have grown increasingly concerned that the case is likely to be decided entirely by conservative judges who might be eager for a chance to restrict abortion access even in Democrat-led states, where the procedure has remained legal since the fall of Roe v. Wade.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/05/abortion-pills-texas-lawsuit/