After Dobbs, states focus on abortion laws, interstate travel for abortions

For the first time in 50 years, states have an unprecedented opportunity to regulate abortion services and explore new ways to regulate abortion services as some employer health insurance plans come under fire.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s June 24 decision in Dobbs & Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned the court’s landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, giving back the legislature’s authority to regulate abortion.

Before Roe v. Wade, “in most states, they were trying to figure out if there was a different way to have an abortion, but the Supreme Court shut that down. Now we’ve been painting on a black canvas for the past 50 years with nothing,” Peter Breen said.

He is vice president and senior counsel for the Chicago-based Thomas More Society, a nonprofit law firm that focuses on defending First Amendment rights.

“Everybody who legislated in the 1960s or 1970s is dead or retired, so we’ve gone 50 years without any significant legislation on abortion, including abortion[debates]since Roe v. Wade,” Breen said.

He is also the founder of the Crisis Pregnancy Center in Illinois and served two terms as an Illinois State Representative from 2015 to 2019, including the Republican floor leader from 2017 to 2019.

By removing abortion as a constitutional right, the court allowed for a more robust public discourse about what happens in an abortion, when life begins, and why women want to end the lives of unborn babies, observers said. .

A key topic of conversation around America right now is the legality of a woman traveling across state lines to obtain an abortion, where access is limited or even more restricted or even prohibited in her area of ​​residence.

At least half of the states plan to ban or restrict abortions in light of the Dobbs decision. To date, 13 states have enacted trigger laws banning abortion since Roe was overturned.

Texas, Oklahoma and Kentucky have all passed abortion laws in recent months that have temporarily or permanently blocked access to most abortions, while states like Illinois and California have taken several steps to demonstrate their role as safe havens for abortion services.

And dozens of large employers, such as Amazon and Starbucks, have said they now offer to pay for some or all of their employees’ travel-related abortions.

Breen, following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs opinion, said, “Our recommendation is that states must be strong enough to prevent or assist individuals seeking out-of-state payment for abortions because states have an interest in protecting their children and the unborn, and (the law) restricts those who have abortions and abortions.” Or he has to wake up the organizations that work to enter the state where he will be killed.

Breen’s home state, Illinois, is surrounded by pro-life states, but unless they pass forceful laws to protect the lives of their unborn residents even when taken out of state, they “relocate the killings for these large numbers rather than stop them.” babies”

Breen, a member of the Thomas More Society, said he helped draft the Texas Legislature’s version of the Texas Heartbeat Act, which would ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

Relying solely on enforcement by private citizens, who are allowed to file civil lawsuits against individuals who provide abortions in violation of the ban, is said to be the first abortion ban.

The Texas law serves as an important case study of where abortion regulation is headed.

“We’ve learned that a significant number of women cross state lines to seek abortions, but not all. So (the Texas situation) is an example that we can look at that is challenging and recent and fresh,” Breen told Catholic News Service in a phone interview.

“Abortion advocates … believe that all states have the right to regulate actions that protect their citizens from traveling outside the state,” he said. “The question is, are we going to move forward to protect against out-of-state abortions?”

So far, no law has been enacted to prohibit women from traveling across states to obtain abortions. The U.S. House on July 15 approved the Abortion Affirmation Act by a vote of 223-205 to prevent out-of-state travel from being penalized for “reproductive health care.” The measure must still be taken up in the US Senate.

The Thomas More Society has launched a Legislative Assistance Program to help pro-life legislators in other states build on the Dobbs decision.

“We must not sit idly by, but rather start pushing state legislatures to protect the unborn — and when they win, you will push harder to realize the victory that Dobbs allows us to achieve,” Breen said.

Legislators in states where abortion is banned should be applauded, “but you have to ask, are corporations willing to take your unborn children out of state for abortion?”

Target, Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. They added benefits that cover the cost of travel to abortions, while Starbucks, Corp., Uber Technologies Inc. and Amazon.com and Dick’s Sporting Goods said they would pay for travel expenses. Medical services, including abortions, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report.

The nation’s largest employer, Walmart, is reviewing its abortion coverage but said it generally does not cover abortion costs unless the mother’s life is in danger, but the types of health insurance plans offered by large and medium-sized companies are increasing some of the benefits of abortion, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The paper also notes that a Kaiser Family Foundation report found that only 10% of covered American workers are enrolled in employee health plans, which specifically limit abortion coverage.

“Of course there will be legal conflicts,” Breen added, adding that states generally have left-leaning Supreme Courts and pro-lifers, and lawmakers will have their work cut out for them in the future.

Brien also suggested that women employed by corporations that pay for abortion services demand better maternity leave and support policies from those same corporations if they give birth.

In the case of Dick’s Sporting Goods, for example, whose CEO recently announced that the retailer will give up to $4,000 to cover the cost of abortion access, Breen says of the workplace, “It can be easy to imagine what a subsidy looks like.” It could be forcing a woman to want to give birth and take maternity leave,” he said.

Dwayne Currier, director of public policy at the Virginia-based American Life League, which bills itself as the oldest Catholic pro-life education organization in the United States, took a different view of the post-Dobbs landscape: The verdict was not lifted. The battle is not over until the issue of whether the unborn child is a person and government reforms.

The American Life League does not believe in supporting any legislation that would only regulate abortion but allow it under certain conditions and circumstances, Currier told CNS.

“I think we’re going to see states and Republican lawmakers more actively trying to put in more restrictions, but American Life League believes that putting in place regulations will only give legitimacy,” he said.

“You can’t cooperate with evil and evil killings and if you believe that there is no point in trying to control that – how can you just say let’s protect some children here or there and fix the law later?” he said. “It is not for the state to decide who deserves to live or not.”

Currier has also seen cities and states declare themselves sanctuaries to prevent abortion clinics from setting up in their neighborhoods as they take steps to protect the rights of the unborn.

If that action doesn’t prevent clinics from opening, at least the establishment of sanctuary cities, he said, adding that “we’re not going to cooperate with you in any measure” and corporations paying workers to provide abortions abroad. He is required to pay for pro-life measures such as adoption.

“Pro-lifers employed by companies like Amazon should ask the companies to be willing to pay for adoption. If they are willing to have an abortion, why not pay the travel fees and the costs to adopt another child from another country,” he said.

He added: “It’s interesting to see how corporations that believe in the powerful abortion decision between the woman and her doctor suddenly find themselves between a woman, a doctor and a global corporation.”

Accounts Abortion Laws, After Dobbs, Dobbs, Interstate Travel for Abortions, Elections

category: American and World News