WaPo: “Not content to prevent women from obtaining abortions in his own state, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall is doing his best to prevent them from traveling to states where the procedure remains legal. Fortunately, a federal judge just ruled that the Constitution won’t let him. Unfortunately, we might have more of this kind of zealotry heading our way.
Marshall’s antiabortion fervor illustrates one of the many shortcomings of the leave-it-to-the-states approach endorsed by, among others, former president Donald Trump. In Alabama, abortion is prohibited, except where there is a serious risk to maternal health. But in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization,Marshall threatened to prosecute anyone who helped Alabama women obtain abortions elsewhere, asserting that could amount to a “criminal conspiracy” under state law.
“An elective abortion performed in Alabama would be a criminal offense; thus, a conspiracy formed in the State to have that same act performed outside the State is illegal,” Marshall asserted in court papers.”