May 7 (UPI) — An Alabama judge has ruled that a lawsuit seeking to prevent the state from prosecuting those who aids patients in receiving abortion care out of state may continue.
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson issued his ruling Monday, dealing a blow to Alabama Attorney General Steven Marshall who had attempted to have the lawsuit dismissed.
“Alabama can no more restrict people from going to, say, California to engage in what is lawful there than California can restrict people from coming to Alabama to do what is lawful here,” Thompson wrote.
“Therefore, the plaintiffs here correctly contend that the attorney general cannot constitutionally prosecute people for acts taken within the state meant to facilitate lawful out-of-state conduct, including obtaining an abortion.”
In the wake of Roe vs. Wade being overturned in the summer of 2022, Alabama has been enforcing a near total abortion ban with criminal and civil penalties.
Marshall has repeatedly said that he can prosecute healthcare professionals who aid Alabamans receive out-of-state abortion care under an 1896 law, stating it is a conspiracy to break the laws of the southern state.
The ruling on Monday comes in a lawsuit filed last July by the Yellowhammer Fund, which helps Alabamans receive out-of-state abortions. It had asked the court to rule that Alabama cannot prosecute them under this law.
Marshall argued for the court to dismiss the case on the grounds that what is being punished is not the final act, which may not even take place, but the conspiracy being held in Alabama to commit an act that is deemed illegal in the state.
“Prosecuting someone for forming a conspiracy in Alabama is not an extraterritorial application of Alabama law simply because the planned conduct is to occur beyond state lines,” he argued in court documents.
But Thompson rule Monday that Marshall’s threats would violate the right to travel and the freedom of speech if he followed through with prosecutions.
“Today’s ruling sends a strong signal to anti-abortion politicians that their efforts to prevent pregnant people in states with bans from obtaining the help they need to access legal, out-of-state abortion care are blatantly unconstitutional,” Meagan Burrows, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the lawsuit for Yellowhammer Fund, said in a statment.
“We are proud to continue this important fight on behalf of our clients and their patients.”
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