Texas woman leaves state to have abortion after Texas Supreme Court paused ruling that would have allowed it, her lawyers say
Texas woman leaves state to have abortion after Texas Supreme Court paused ruling that would have allowed it, her lawyers say
State District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble last week had ruled that Kate Cox could terminate her pregnancy despite the state's ban.
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Honest Q: is there a charge that could be brought against her?
IIRC, Texas was one of the states that was looking to pass laws making it illegal to facilitate a person getting an out of state abortion based on passing laws about using public roads to leave the state. I am skeptical as to the constitutionality of those laws, but they are either in process or have been passed in several red states.
I think that the constitutional protection of interstate commerce might apply, but the laws are yet to be tested. You can fly to Las Vegas to gamble, even if gambling is illegal in Texas, for example. The more concerning potential application is whether they can consider an out of state abortion itself a crime, in the same way that if you fly to California and get stoned, you can (maybe) get picked up in Texas and get charged with testing positive for cannabis. I don’t know that they do that, but if it’s against the law to have a controlled substance in your system, I could see the possibility. I’m also concerned, if the interstate thing gets fucked over, that medical providers could potentially have a warrant put out for them in another state and either have a judgement entered against them or be forced to appear. Again, I’m not sure whether even this ACOTUS would go that far - there’s a very good reason the feds keep the states out of that kind of thing - but I’ve also stopped trying to predict what constitutes “too far” because they’ve so far violated every line in the sand I’ve managed to draw.