States Want to Ban Abortions Beyond Their Borders. Here's What Pro-Choice States Can Do.

[Demovictory9]

A recently introduced Missouri provision would allow private citizens to sue anyone who helps a Missouri resident get an abortion in another state.

The provision is part of a wave of state anti-abortion legislation, some of it quite radical, that’s being considered in the months ahead of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — the case that’s expected to severely compromise, if not entirely jettison, the nationwide right to abortion under Roe v. Wade. The result of such an outcome would be that about half the states in the country would ban nearly all abortions.

What’s alarming about the Missouri bill, and others like it, is that it suggests a new tactic in the coming abortion wars: Some states will go beyond banning abortion within their borders. They will try to impose their policy preferences on other states, in an attempt to stop their citizens from getting abortions anywhere at all. (A bill proposed last year would have applied Missouri law to many out-of-state abortions — even when the patient’s only connection to the state was having sex that resulted in a pregnancy there.)

Given that the federal government has so far failed to act decisively on this issue, it will be up to abortion-supportive states to determine the future of abortion law and access. Some such states have protected the right to abortion in their statutes or constitutions, and more have announced their intention to do so. But as the Missouri bill shows, abortion-supportive states must go further than keeping abortion legal within their state lines.

A suite of bills introduced in California has begun to chart a path to protect abortion providers and patients. But consider these additional steps that states can take. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/13/opinion/missouri-abortion-roe-v-wade.html

[Chainfire]

1. And the beat goes on.

[Joinfortmill]

2. Shame on Missouri lawmakers, and fuck them, too.

It's hard to see how these types of laws withstand legal scutiny.

[Karma13612]

7. Let me take a moment to introduce you to our

Supreme Court of the United States…..

Not meaning to be snarky or anything. Just pointing out that SCOTUS doesn’t seem to be responding logically anymore. They are showing their rightwing ideology pretty openly now.

[4Q2u2]

3. What happened

To States rights. Those fundies are always yelling about.

[Chainfire]

5. The right's perverted idea of state's rights are like their idea of "freedom."

To a right winger, freedom is the right for them to tell you how to live.

[Chainfire]

4. Maybe they could use some sanctions.

[JustAnotherGen]

6. The Fugitive Slave Laws

That's what comes to mind.

States Rights for blue states - can go both ways.

[ck4829]

8. Sanction them - Should not give money to them

Refuse the lawsuit's validity. What are they going to do?

Try to seize your money?
Arrest you?

I expect a state against this to defend their citizens.

[Karma13612]

9. If they want to sue someone in a blue state for helping a

Woman get an abortion in an abortion friendly state, then the said state should impose a very high filing fee for bringing the suit. Say, $50,000. Lets see how many people will come forward.

[Freddie]

10. Exactly how do they plan on doing this?

Set up guards at all the state borders?
Might as well have the civil war now if we can’t travel to another state for ANY reason.

[MissMillie]

12. Well the Missouri bill would permit civil suits

against those who aid women in obtaining legal abortions in other states, much like the Texas law. The enforcement falls upon ordinary citizens.

I was talking to my sister about this just the other day. In my state it's illegal to use fireworks w/o a license/permit. But I live about 10 miles from a state where this is not the case. So, if a friend of mine were to drive me to New Hampshire where I could purchase fireworks, and use them legally in that state (say, at the home of a friend or relative) some other person could sue my friend for helping me do that.

There has to be some sort of interstate commerce precedent involved that would prevent people from suing others for doing (and/or aiding someone else for doing) something completely legal in another state.

I like the author's note that some states are starting to tap into the idea that their states' regulatory boards don't have to aid in depositions where people are being sued for legal activity.

[Freddie]

14. Like marijuana

Recreational pot is not yet legal here in Pennsylvania. If I go to a state where it is legal, buy it, bring it home to smoke it here I’m doing something illegal. But if I go to that state and smoke it there, I’m fine. There’s got to be some precedent you can safely travel to another state to do something legal in state. Put another way, it’s none of Pennsylvania’s gd business what I do in Colorado. But who know with the reactionaries in SCOTUS.

[MissMillie]

15. I don't quite understand why the "states' rights crowd

would let laws like these fly, given the precedent the laws set for things that have nothing to do with abortion (hunting with a gun comes to mind).

Then again, I don't usually think of consistency being a strong characteristic of the GOP

[MissMillie]

11. link w/ no paywall

https://archive.ph/M4nW2

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

13. Ireland for a very long time did its best to keep women from going

to England to get abortions.

Ireland's abortion restrictions would have made Republicans proud.

[Demovictory9]

16. Yes..including harassing young women on the ferries