Democratic lawmakers are stepping up efforts to establish “sanctuary states” for reproductive rights in response to the Supreme Court ruling that ended nearly half a century of federal legal protection for abortion.
The cancellation of Roe vs. Wade on Friday led to automatic bans on abortion in 13 Republican states, and 13 more are expected to pass their own bans in the coming weeks.
However, pro-election lawmakers had been preparing for the Supreme Court decision proposing or passing legislation to codify abortion rights and legal protections in U.S. democratic states.
The moves add to an increasingly complex mosaic of abortion rules in the United States based on party lines, opening the door to legal disputes between states and the federal government.
“I can imagine major clashes between the federal government and the states,” said Neal Katyal, a former U.S. attorney general and partner at law firm Hogan Lovells.
Katyal cited a possible litigation over whether anti-abortion states can criminalize anyone who helps a woman terminate her pregnancy in another jurisdiction. “This would be a clear violation of the right to travel, but it will require disorderly litigation and court cases,” he said.
Some Republican state lawmakers are also exploring crackdown on out-of-state telemedicine providers to prevent them from providing abortion advice and medication to their citizens, according to Katie Keith, an associate research professor at the Insurance Reform Center. of Georgetown University.
“He [legal and practical] The challenges here are unprecedented in scope, “Keith said.” This will be pretty unproven in the future. “
In May, Connecticut signed the Reproductive Freedom Defense Act, which offers new legal protections for patients seeking care for abortion in the state arriving from jurisdictions that have banned the procedure.
The law expanded access to abortion in Connecticut by increasing the types of doctors eligible to perform certain abortion-related care. It also created legal protections for citizens against extradition to states where abortion is now illegal, even providing legal defense services and funding for anyone who is sued.
“Undoing Roe will generate an unprecedented amount of uncertainty and put states in legal battles with each other in a manner similar to the darkest days in our country’s history,” said Matthew Blumenthal, a Connecticut representative who sponsored the legislation, in Financial. Time.
Blumenthal was referring to the laws of runaway slaves, where southern states fought against northern states to return those who had fled slavery. In response, northern states passed “freedom laws” to prevent extradition.
Blumenthal said the Connecticut law was specifically designed to thwart lawsuits, extradition requests and even rewards from states where abortion is now illegal.
Texas, Missouri and Idaho have passed reward laws that offer financial incentives to citizens who file lawsuits against health care providers who perform abortions. The new Connecticut law, however, facilitates the lawsuit, an effort according to Blumenthal that sought to deter people in those states from filing lawsuits.
“It’s not where I expected us to be as a country,” Blumenthal said. “The idea that we are passing these laws is shocking, but they are purely defensive.”
Many other blue states have been taking action since early May, when a draft Supreme Court ruling was leaked to the Politico news site. In cities from Washington to Chicago and Seattle, similar sanctuary legislation is making its way into state legislatures.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed a bill designed to protect both patients and local health care providers from civil lawsuits based on the laws of other states. He joined the governors of Oregon and Washington state to sign a pledge to enshrine abortion rights on the west coast.
Under the pledge, all three states will not comply with out-of-state investigations or arrests based on external abortion laws, and will refuse to extradite people who have traveled to the states for legal reproductive health services, e.g. . States also promised to expand access to abortion drugs and telehealth for reproductive services.
Recommended
Newsom of California has previously proposed a $ 125 million package to expand access to health care for abortion.
In New York, Rep. Charles Lavine has proposed the Geraldine Santoro Act to provide travel and medical care to out-of-state travelers seeking an abortion and a $ 15 million fund to support these services. The act, which bears the name of a woman who died in 1964 due to unsafe abortion, aims to mitigate the impact of the Supreme Court ruling, especially on poor and minority populations.
“This is all a start. We anticipated what [Supreme Court justice Samuel] Alito was going to do it and take all the steps he could soon to offer protections, “Lavine said.” Never before in our history had our Supreme Court stolen a constitutional right from Americans. ”
However, experts warn that abortion providers may have difficulty coping with the influx of women from other states seeking care if the attack is passed by Republican state legislation. “Existing clinics and providers already have little funding and few resources even in a protected state,” Keith said. “It will be overwhelming.”
Organizations like Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit organization that is the largest provider of abortion care in the United States, are also preparing legal challenges to prevent an immediate abortion ban.
On Saturday, Planned Parenthood of Utah filed a restraining order against the state’s abortion ban, which was passed in 2020 and went into effect this week. Without the call, the organization said, more than 50 women in the state could not have an abortion this week.
“If the activation ban remains in effect, thousands of Utah people will be forced to carry an unwanted or dangerous pregnancy to term or travel out of state to care for abortion,” said the organization.
“This is deeply personal,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul told MSNBC on Sunday. New York has budgeted $ 35 million to expand access to abortion.
“There’s a strong rage out there,” Hochul added. “It’s not a democratic issue… Women just want to make their own decisions. For the government to tell them they can’t is shocking.”