“You have freedom of travel in this country, and as long as you’re following the law in the state where you are, you are legally OK” under current law. A court that has gone so far as to overturn Roe, he said, “would likely take that unclear precedent in the direction that is most anti-abortion.”īut banning travel would go against “basic American principles”, he said. “The supreme court does not have well-developed case law regarding extraterritorial application of state law,” he added in an email. If the supreme court overturns abortion protections, such travel bans might also be permitted to stand, Cohen said. “We’re going to see state-against-state battles that are really going to divide this country even deeper on this issue,” he said. “I think states are not going to rest with just saying ‘there won’t be abortions in our state.’ I think they’re going to want to ban abortion for their citizens as much as they can, which would mean stopping them from traveling,” said David Cohen, professor at Drexel University’s Kline School of Law and lead author of a forthcoming article on cross-state legal issues that could arise in the abortion context. The law was ultimately blocked in the state’s legislature, but experts expect such legislation to gain more support if Roe is weakened or overturned. Lawmakers in Missouri weighed legislation early this year that would allow individuals to sue anyone helping a patient cross state lines for an abortion.

If, as the bombshell leak of its private vote suggests, the supreme court weakens or overturns Roe v Wade – the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion – in an upcoming decision on Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, states will be left with a confusing patchwork of laws that will probably lead to legal challenges.Ī fresh wave of restrictions will probably center around patients who leave their state to obtain legal abortions in other states, or who order medications to manage their abortions at home.

Will the travel ban make more enemies