New figures shed light on US abortion travel as Trump cuts tracking research

For the second year in a row, abortion providers performed more than 1m abortions in the United States in 2024. About 155,000 people crossed state lines for abortions – roughly double the number of patients who did so in 2020, before the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade and paved the way for more … Read more

Judge rules Alabama cannot prosecute those who help with out-of-state abortions

The US district judge Myron Thompson sided with an abortion fund and medical providers who sued Alabama’s attorney general, Steve Marshall, after he suggested they could face prosecution under anti-conspiracy laws. Thompson’s ruling declared that such prosecutions would violate both the first amendment and a person’s right to travel. Read more at The Guardian  

Apps can be weaponized to criminalize those seeking abortion care. Under Trump, it could get worse

Researchers also bring attention to big tech’s business model and how it “facilitates mass surveillance of users seeking reproductive health care.” For example, people are frequently forced to consent to companies having permission to collecting and use their data, or they’re denied access to the platform. Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade with the … Read more

These states already restrict abortion. Their legislatures could push it even further.

Legislators in Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Tennessee have filed bills that would further curb access. In states with near-total bans, lawmakers are looking to eliminate the workarounds residents have used to continue accessing abortions. In others, lawmakers will weigh whether to move from six-week abortion bans to almost completely outlawing the procedure. … Read more

“It’s going to create fear”: Idaho’s “abortion trafficking” law shows that free speech is a target

“Upholding the parts of the law that allow Idaho to criminalize and punish people who harbor or transport — that is going to have a chilling effect,” she said in a phone interview. “It’s going to create confusion, and it’s going to create fear.” “You’ve already seen women having to get [airlifted] out of the … Read more

Court rules Idaho can partially enforce its ‘abortion trafficking law’

“Simply protecting speech doesn’t address the criminalization of essential acts of support,” she said. “It doesn’t address the broader chilling effects on speech by people who might be afraid of potential misinterpretation or prosecution.” “This idea of surveilling citizens and trying to track their movements, where they’re going, what they’re doing. These are not American … Read more

The Next Abortion Battlefront

In the Dobbs decision, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that U.S. citizens have a “constitutional right to interstate travel,” including for abortions. But abortion opponents are nonetheless trying to prevent people from crossing state lines for care that they see as a threat to unborn life. In Alabama, for example, Attorney General Steve Marshall has said … Read more