Pro-life lawmakers considering ways to prevent 'abortion tourism'

By victort // 2022-07-10

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(LifeSiteNews) – Pro-life legislators and attorneys are strategizing on how to stop people in their states from traveling elsewhere for abortion. (Article by Matt Lamb republished from LifeSiteNews.com) The Thomas More Society “is drafting model legislation for state lawmakers that would allow private citizens to sue anyone who helps a resident of a state that has banned abortion from terminating a pregnancy outside of that state,” according to the Washington Post. “The draft language will borrow from the novel legal strategy behind a Texas abortion ban enacted last year in which private citizens were empowered to enforce the law through civil litigation.” “The subject was much discussed at two national antiabortion conferences last weekend, with several lawmakers interested in introducing these kinds of bills in their own states,” the Post reported.

“Many of us have supported legislation to stop human trafficking,” Arkansas state Senator Jason Rapert, president of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, told the Post. “So why is there a pass on people trafficking women in order to make money off of aborting their babies?”

The National Association of Christian Lawmakers also strategized recently on how to stop women from leaving pro-life states for those with liberal abortion policies. States like Illinois are expected to see women coming from Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana, for example.

State Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman proposed a bill in Missouri in 2021 to allow citizens to sue people facilitating an abortion. The legislation would empower citizens rather than the state to sue abortionists and anyone else, other than the mother, who facilitates an abortion of a baby with a detectable heartbeat.

Planned Parenthood opened an abortion facility in Illinois in 2019 in anticipation of the sole location in St. Louis closing.

The Washington Post noted that liberal states have implemented laws to attempt to stop prosecution of people who aid and abet in abortions.

“Connecticut passed a law in April that offers broad protections from antiabortion laws that try to reach into other states,” the paper reported. “The measure would shield people from out-of-state summonses or subpoenas issued in cases related to abortion procedures that are legal in Connecticut.”

“And it would prevent Connecticut authorities from adhering to another state’s request to investigate or punish anyone involved in facilitating a legal abortion in Connecticut,” the newspaper reported.

New Mexico’s Governor Michele Lujan Grisham also ordered government agencies not to assist in the prosecution of abortionists who illegally killed babies in other states.

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said he would provide “clemency” for anyone for participating in an abortion, which is now illegal in the state due to a pre-Roe ban.

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