Albama cannot prosecute doctors and reproductive health organizations to help patients travel outside the state to obtain abortion, according to a federal judge on Monday.
Alabama has one of the most prominent abortion ban in the country, and in 2022, Prosecutor Steve Marshall, a Republican, has the possibility of doctors accusing criminal conspiracy to recommend abortion outside the state.
Many clinics and doctors challenged Mr. Marshall’s comments in court, accusing him of threatening the first amendment rights, as well as the constitutional right to travel. The Ministry of Justice, under the Biden Administration, was also constructed with support for clinics, on the pretext that “threatened criminal prosecutions violate the principle of the foundation in American constitutional law.”
On Monday, the judge spent Mayiron H. Thompson from the central region of Alabama, in Montgomery, that Mr. Marshall will violate both the first amendment and the right to travel if the prosecution is sought.
“It is one thing for Alabama to prohibit the statute of what is happening in his backyard,” wrote Judge Tomson, who was called the court by President Jimmy Carter, in his opinion of 131 pages.
He added: “It is another thing, because the state implements its values and laws, as the prosecutor chose it, outside its borders by punishing its citizens and others who help individuals to travel to another country to engage in legal behavior there, but the public prosecutor finds that he contradicts the values and laws of Alabama.”
Judge Thompson described a virtual scenario in which the Bachelor’s Party can be sued from Alabama in favor of the Casino -style gambling in Las Vegas, which is illegal in Alabama.
As the old saying goes, be careful to pray for him, “he wrote.
Traveling to other countries has increased for abortion, or abortion pills, significantly since the Roe V Supreme Court canceled. Wade. More than 171,000 patients Fell In 2023, compared to 73,100 in 2019, according to the Guttmacher Research Institute.
Mr. Marshall has repeatedly defended his position in the court, on the pretext that he retained the ability to prosecute a conspiracy that occurred in Alabama and that the legitimacy of the laws of abortion in other states does not concern. (It does not seem to charge anyone in such a case.)
Mr. Marshall wrote in one file: “The right to travel, to the extent that he is involved in, does not give the prosecutors the right to implement a criminal plot just because they suggest doing this by buying bus passes or driving cars.”
Republicans -led states, like Alabama, generally have the most restricted abortion laws in the country. Some of these states now take legal steps to stop efforts outside the country to help the population obtain abortion.
Louisiana, Who passed the law last year He accused the appointment of abortion pills as serious control materials, both Louisiana and New York doctor of violating the state’s abortion. (New York She rejected Delivery of the doctor.)
This month, the writer of New York County Texas was prevented from filing a legal lawsuit against the same doctor. New York has The Law of the Dispute Shield This prevents penalties against abortion providers who use distance medication to send medications to other states.
Alabama’s ruling can be appealed, as the judicial system continues to deal with the repercussions of the ROE. In June, Supreme Court Exclusively permitted to abort the emergency In the state of Idaho, although it did not directly weighing the prohibition of abortion in the state.
Alabama, where the voters agreed to a constitutional amendment in 2018, which aims to protect the rights of children who were not yet born, at the discussion center on reproductive medicine and access to abortion. It has one of Blocking the most stringent abortion In the nation, except for only if the life of a pregnant woman is in danger. Doctors are also allowed to accuse felonies of up to 99 years in prison.
Its amendment to combat abortion was in the heart State Supreme Court decision Last year, it was found that embryos could be considered children, a decision that briefly in fertility treatments in the state and pushes the issue of fertilization in the laboratory in the national spotlight.
The clinics that challenged the comments of Mr. Marshall, in 2023, included the Yellowhammer Fund, an organization founded in Tuscalosa that helps to finance and support abortion in the deep south, and the West Alabama Women Center in Tuscalaosa, now known as Wawc Healthcare. Including the prosecutor Dr. Yashika RobinsonHuntville’s obstetric specialist.
In the court files, they said that they either stopped running the abortion fund or began to refuse to answer questions about how patients asked to take care of the state. Group, prosecutors still receive several calls per week asking for help; On Monday, the court ruling set up up to 95 a week.
“Every day he was painful,” said Kelissi Malain, director of access to health care of the Yellowhammer Fund. She said that the ruling brought “just an overwhelming feeling.”
She added: “We are free to do exactly what we feel, in ways we are experts.” “People will not be alone.”
Mr. Marshall’s office said it is “a review of the decision to determine the state’s options.”
It is worth noting, in The opinion of 2022 is consistent with the decision to cancel ROEJudge Brett Cavano wrote that he does not believe that a country could constitutionally prevent residents from traveling to abortion. Judge Thompson noticed this ruling on Monday.
Abe Vensikal The reports contributed.
