Alabama reproductive rights advocates battle threat of prosecution
The lawsuit tests the limits of Alabama’s strict abortion ban and the power of Steve Marshall, its outspoken attorney general.
A federal court judge in Alabama will soon answer a crucial question: In a state where abortion is illegal, can health care providers and advocates be punished for helping patients seek the procedure elsewhere?
In 2022, just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the state’s abortion ban kicked in, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, a Republican, said on a radio show that groups helping to fund out-of-state abortions could face felony charges.
His comments rattled health care providers, who might advise a pregnant woman seeking an abortion to travel out of state, and abortion funds that help arrange and fund such travel. That advice and support are key, abortion-rights supporters say, because several states across the South have either restricted or banned abortion, resulting in a maze of conflicting laws for patients to navigate.
So the providers and advocates took Marshall to court, separately suing to block him from making good on the threat of prosecution.
“No Alabama law authorizes such prosecutions. Nor could it. That would be a blatant extraterritorial overreach of state power,” the providers’ lawsuit states, arguing that Marshall’s vow violates the First Amendment, the right to travel and other constitutional protections.
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