The Yellowhammer Fund, a pro-abortion advocacy organization, announced Monday that the group had filed a lawsuit against Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall over comments he made in 2022 about prosecuting citizens who help women get abortions out of state, according to a press release.
Marshall said during a radio interview in August 2022 that he would consider prosecuting anyone who helps a woman get to another state to obtain an abortion, according to the lawsuit. The Yellowhammer Fund argues that Marshall’s “threats specifically target” groups such as the Yellowhammer Fund, which “provides community education, mutual aid, policy advocacy” for those seeking abortions. (RELATED: GOP Split Over Senator Tuberville’s Strategy To Overturn Pentagon Abortion Policy)
“The Attorney General’s threats violate Yellowhammer Fund’s constitutional rights to free expression, association, travel, and due process and intrude on the sovereignty of states where abortion is legal,” the press release reads. “This is the second civil rights lawsuit filed this month challenging a state’s efforts to infringe upon the right to travel for abortion care; the first challenges an Idaho law that criminalizes assistance to young people seeking abortion care without parental knowledge.”
Abortion campaigners attend a rally against new restrictions on abortion passed by legislatures in eight states including Alabama and Georgia, in New York City on May 21, 2019. (Jeenah Moon/Reuters)
Abortion is currently banned in Alabama with no exceptions for rape or incest but does allow the procedure if it is determined to protect the health of the mother. Marshall said during the interview that while it is not illegal for a woman to travel outside of state lines to get an abortion, he felt that a group or individual advertising services or aid to help a woman cross state lines would be something that the state is “going to look at closely” and could be considered a felony under the law, according to the lawsuit.
The abortion advocates claimed in the suit that these comments could chill the speech of their clients and their workers, who are afraid of facing legal repercussions for promoting ways for Alabamians to gain access to abortion.
“Abortion funds do more than simply provide aid,” Jenice Fountain, executive director at the Yellowhammer Fund, said in the press release. “They send a message of solidarity to those who are persecuted by the State of Alabama for seeking to control their reproductive health. That message is both that our humanity and dignity are interconnected and that the State’s efforts to isolate and oppress pregnant people cannot break that bond. The attorney general objects to that message and has targeted us and those who wish to help pregnant people leave the state for lawful abortion care.”
Marshall’s office said that he will “continue to vigorously enforce Alabama laws protecting unborn life” and work to prevent “abortion providers” from “conspiring to violate the Act,” according to a statement given to The Hill.
Marshall did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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