Texas and I believe a few other states have passed anti-abortion laws that attempt to cover people leaving their states to seek safe and legal abortions. The ones I’m familiar with (as I recall) applied to things like traveling on state-owned roads to seek an abortion out of state.

Let’s lay aside the question of constitutional and federal restrictions governing interstate commerce laws for now. I started wondering if these laws would govern transportation via airlines or Amtrak. They could (I assume) make the argument that they pulled you over on the way to the transportation facility, but if you didn’t buy the tickets until you get there, I think it’d complicate the state’s case. I did some thinking along those lines.

My real question now is whether the defendant could state that they were traveling for reasons of a medical consultation regarding their pregnancy but had not yet decided whether they would be having an abortion performed. As far as I know, these laws necessarily target intent. If the patient states they were traveling to a state where they would be more likely to receive competent medical advice (which is a truism - abortion-restricting states also limit what MDs can say to a patient), would the state need to prove their intent? Absent something like a text message stating “I’m going to California to get an abortion,” does the prosecution have any line of attack there?

Abortion resources:

California abortion resources by the state government

Planned Parenthood

Abortion Defense Network

LGBTQ abortion info

  • Zak@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Texas can however make it illegal to have drugs in your system while in Texas

    I’m not sure that’s actually a crime in Texas (please link a law if you know of one), and using it as evidence of prior drug possession is legally iffy as this Ohio case shows. In your example of consuming cannabis in California before traveling to Texas, it would be an even more difficult case for Texas prosecutors.

    I don’t want the parole thing to confuse the issue

    It does though; parole can include restrictions like “pass random drug tests”, “don’t drink alcohol”, etc… that can’t be imposed on people without a prior criminal conviction. It’s probably best to leave parole out of the discussion entirely.

    the concern is ipso facto the termination.

    When it comes to an abortion outside the state, the laws I’m aware of concern travel for the purpose of abortion. An alternate purpose for the travel could be useful as a defense, but that’s best delivered by one’s lawyer after charges are filed.