Democrats ask DOJ to protect ability of patients to travel out of state for abortion

A group of Senate Democrats urged the Department of Justice (DOJ) Wednesday to protect the ability of Americans to travel outside their home states to obtain abortions, as some Republican-led states look to crack down on out-of-state abortion access.

“Given the work of many of our states to protect access to abortion care no matter whether a patient comes from the state or travels from another, we are alarmed by efforts in other states to curb interstate travel, which may present an unprecedented attack on Americans’ rights,” the senators from mostly Democratic-led states said in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The letter — which was signed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and John Fetterman (D-Pa.) — pointed to a new Idaho law in particular.

The law, signed by Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) in April, makes it a crime for an adult to help a minor obtain an abortion outside the state without parental permission, which it defines as “abortion trafficking.”

Lawmakers in Iowa, Texas and Tennessee have also proposed legislation targeting providers who offer care to out-of-state patients and companies and governmental entities that provide assistance to those seeking to travel out of state for an abortion, the letter noted.

The group of Senate Democrats requested a briefing later this month from the Justice Department’s Reproductive Health Task Force, which was created in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision last June to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The task force is meant to monitor state and local actions that threaten to block “individuals’ ability to inform and counsel each other about the reproductive care that is available in other states,” among other issues.