Federal Judge Halts Alabama’s Effort to Target Interstate Abortion Care

A federal court has ruled that Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and district attorneys cannot take legal action against people who help pregnant Alabamians access abortion care in states where it remains legal. The court determined that such threats violated both the First Amendment right to free expression and the constitutional right to interstate travel.

“At its core, this case is simply about whether a State may prevent people within its borders from going to another State, and from assisting others in going to another State, to engage in lawful conduct there…The court now answers no, a State cannot,” District Judge Myron Thompson said in the ruling.

The suit, filed in 2023 by abortion providers in Alabama, followed public threats from Marshall, who claimed that helping someone obtain an out-of-state abortion could be considered a felony. Although Marshall had not yet pursued prosecutions against individuals or organizations — including health care providers and reproductive justice advocates — the ACLU has said that his threats had a chilling effect. According to the ACLU, medical professionals, fearing legal consequences, were deterred from offering essential support such as information, advice, or logistical help to patients seeking abortions across state lines.

“As medical professionals, we have an obligation to ensure that our patients have the information and support they need in order to make and effectuate their own decisions about their health, their bodies and their pregnancies, including the decision to have an abortion,” Yashica Robinson, medical director of Alabama Women’s Center, said in a statement. “The notion of criminalizing us for providing this vital information and support to our patients is not just ludicrous but counter to everything a patient expects from their health care provider.”

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, abortion was banned in Alabama, forcing residents to travel out of state to access care. According to the ACLU, legal abortion in other states has since become a critical lifeline for Alabamians, and many pregnant people in Alabama seeking abortions rely on providers and reproductive rights organizations for information on how and where to access services out of state.

“Health care providers should be able to support their patients in accessing all of their legally available medical care options without undue political interference, and certainly without the threat of criminal prosecution. While there’s still a long way to go in making that a reality in Alabama, today’s ruling is a step in the right direction,” Robin Marty, executive director of West Alabama Women’s Center, said in a press release.

If the ruling is appealed, which it likely will be, the case would go to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, where half of the judges are Trump appointees. If the ruling stands, it would affirm constitutional protections for both interstate travel and freedom of speech, potentially influencing similar legal battles in other states.

“It is one thing for Alabama to outlaw by statute what happens in its own backyard. It is another thing for the state to enforce its values and laws, as chosen by the attorney general, outside its boundaries by punishing its citizens and others who help individuals travel to another state to engage in conduct that is lawful there but the attorney general finds to be contrary to Alabama’s values and laws,” Thompson wrote in the opinion.

While district court decisions are generally not binding, the decision could serve as persuasive authority as more states attempt to extend their abortion bans beyond their borders. Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Idaho, for instance, have tried to criminally or civilly penalize providers for offering abortion care and others who assist minors in obtaining out-of-state abortions without parental consent.

“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,” Meagan Burrows, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, said in a statement.