I think this is a civil prosecution like Texas’ abortion ban. So say you and a friend of yours live in Texas. Your friend was raped and just found out that she’s 7 weeks pregnant. You help her get to a blue state for an abortion.
At some point, your friend tells her mother who happens to tell me. I sue you and your friend to collect thousands of dollars.
Now even if I’m unsuccessful, you still need to deal with the time, money, and stress that a civil trial brings. And if you’re found to be in violation of that law, you could be out thousands of dollars. This is all intended to make people reluctant to help pregnant women. It’s a cruel law designed to scare people into being crueler to others.
Only if you’re trying to overturn one of these laws, see Whole Women’s Health v Jackson. Which despite what’s claimed doesn’t protect SB8 style laws from judicial review, but rather protects them from such review before they go into effect and someone actually sues under them.
Any abortion travel ban is either going to immediately collapse under the commerce clause (leaving the state to have an abortion is necessarily an act of interstate commerce and federal government is the one with power over interstate commerce) or use Texas SB8-style civil enforcement, which means no one can challenge it until someone actually sues using it - at which point I’d get some activist group to make a fucking showing of taking women across state lines for abortions to bait a lawsuit under the travel ban so as to be able to challenge it.
It only takes one or two unsuccessful suits for this to not even be taken up by the courts in the future though, right? And I don’t know how you can prove someone had an abortion out of state.
I think this is a civil prosecution like Texas’ abortion ban. So say you and a friend of yours live in Texas. Your friend was raped and just found out that she’s 7 weeks pregnant. You help her get to a blue state for an abortion.
At some point, your friend tells her mother who happens to tell me. I sue you and your friend to collect thousands of dollars.
Now even if I’m unsuccessful, you still need to deal with the time, money, and stress that a civil trial brings. And if you’re found to be in violation of that law, you could be out thousands of dollars. This is all intended to make people reluctant to help pregnant women. It’s a cruel law designed to scare people into being crueler to others.
Remember when you needed to have standing to sue someone? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Only if you’re trying to overturn one of these laws, see Whole Women’s Health v Jackson. Which despite what’s claimed doesn’t protect SB8 style laws from judicial review, but rather protects them from such review before they go into effect and someone actually sues under them.
Any abortion travel ban is either going to immediately collapse under the commerce clause (leaving the state to have an abortion is necessarily an act of interstate commerce and federal government is the one with power over interstate commerce) or use Texas SB8-style civil enforcement, which means no one can challenge it until someone actually sues using it - at which point I’d get some activist group to make a fucking showing of taking women across state lines for abortions to bait a lawsuit under the travel ban so as to be able to challenge it.
It only takes one or two unsuccessful suits for this to not even be taken up by the courts in the future though, right? And I don’t know how you can prove someone had an abortion out of state.
And it only takes the vague threat to have a chilling effect on women getting medical access they are otherwise entitled to, unfortunately.