Alabama cannot continue those who help abortions outside the state, judges the rules

Alabama cannot continue doctors and boresic health organizations for helping patients travel from the state to obtain abortions, a federal judge tried on Monday.

Alabama has one of the strictest abortion of abortion in the country and, in 2022, its attorney general, Steve Marshall, a republican, raised the possibility of invoicing the doctors of criminal plots to recommend abortion out of the state.

Several clinics and doctors challenged Mr. Marshall’s comments in court, accusing him of threatening their rights to the first amendment, as well as the constitutional right to travel. The Ministry of Justice of the Biden Administration had also weighed with support for clinics, arguing that “threatened criminal proceedings violate a principle of foundation of American constitutional law”.

Monday, the judge, Myron H. Thompson, of the Alabama intermediate district, in Montgomery, judged that Mr. Marshall would violate both the first amendment and the right to travel if he asked for prosecution.

“This is one thing for the Alabama to surlive by status what is happening in his own backyard,” wrote Judge Thompson, who was appointed to court by President Jimmy Carter, in his 131-page opinion.

“This is another thing,” he added, “so that the state applies its values ​​and its laws, as chosen by the Attorney General, outside its borders by punishing its citizens and others who help individuals to go to another State to engage in a legal conduct, but the Attorney General judges unlike the values ​​and laws of Alabama.”