A federal district court in Alabama determined on March 31 that people who help abortion-seekers travel to other states for pregnancy terminations will not face criminal prosecution. The ruling came after the Alabama attorney general threatened to prosecute anybody who aids abortion-seekers across state lines. Alabama bans abortion in any stage of pregnancy, with no exceptions for incest or rape. 

The lawsuit was filed in 2023 by the Yellowhammer Fund to challenge Attorney General Steve Marshall’s threats to health care providers and abortion funds in Alabama, in response to statements Marshall made in radio interviews in August 2022. In the interview, Marshall said providers could be charged with felony conspiracy for assisting abortion-seekers in accessing abortion legally in states where the procedure is not banned. Last year, the court consolidated Yellowhammer Fund’s lawsuit with a similar lawsuit filed by health care providers in Alabama, which were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The lawsuit marks a victory for the Yellowhammer Fund and for health care providers who were uncertain about the potential criminal consequences for providing referrals to abortion-seekers in the state. The Yellowhammer Fund stopped operations after Roe v. Wade was overturned as a direct result of the threats made by Marshall, which would have put its majority Black staff at risk of incarceration for years for simply doing their jobs. 

The Yellowhammer Fund served between 50 and 100 people a week when it was active, according to Kelsea McLain, the fund’s deputy director, funding travel for abortion-seekers and providing referral support. 

“Our general understanding is that the attorney general was threatening to charge us with criminal conspiracy over either funding a procedure, or providing any support to help someone leave the state, or even just telling people where clinics exist outside of the state, or where other abortion funds exist outside of the state,” McLain told Prism. “So we filed the lawsuit mid-2023, and it’s just been a waiting game since then.”

The threats and subsequent halting of abortion-funding operations left thousands of Alabamians without community-based support when seeking an abortion. 

“It means that people have been isolated, which I think is exactly the point of these abortion bans,” McLain said. “They aren’t there to protect us, to keep us safe, to ensure that people are receiving good health care. Abortion bans exist to stigmatize abortion and isolate us, because people in isolation often might not be able to make the choice that they would otherwise make if they had support.”

Marshall’s office did not respond to Prism’s request for comment.

The Yellowhammer Fund was represented by The Lawyering Project, which focuses on improving access to reproductive health care through legal action. According to senior counsel Jamila Johnson, the attorney general admitted in court that a pregnant person could not be prosecuted for leaving the state and having a lawful abortion, but that he could prosecute people who helped that pregnant person leave the state—even though all the activities described are entirely within the law. 

McLain said that being able to aid abortion-seekers to travel is essential at the moment because of how complicated abortion laws are, how frequently they change, and how convoluted it is to access care outside of the state. 

“We’ve been out of the loop of helping people make logical, affordable, and supportive abortion plans,” she said. “Right now, having an abortion in Alabama looks like leaving the state, period. … And we know that people have been having to make choices to continue pregnancies that they wouldn’t have otherwise continued, especially without us there to advocate for them.”

The ruling delivered by U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson confirmed what the plaintiffs had been arguing: that the government cannot criminalize individuals or organizations for supporting travel across state lines when seeking an abortion. 

“If a State cannot outright prohibit the plaintiffs’ clients from traveling to receive lawful out-of-state abortions, it cannot accomplish the same end indirectly by prosecuting those who assist them,” the judge said in the ruling. 

While the decision will benefit Alabamians who seek abortions, it also means that health care providers in other states will have an easier time performing abortions on patients from Alabama, who can now be supported by community-based organizations and people. Without the fear of criminalization, the staff at Yellowhammer Fund can begin to break the silence imposed by the attorney general’s threats and provide support for the thousands of abortion-seekers who, for the past two years, could not access information about abortion. 

“There was something very unique about what the attorney general did here. In many ways, he extended a law across the borders at his own discretion,” Johnson said. “What level of power should prosecutors and attorneys general have? We don’t let them both make the laws and enforce the laws. And in a way, what the attorney general was doing here was making the law and enforcing it at the same time.”

The Yellowhammer Fund has resumed operations and is currently funding abortions across state lines. 

“Today is a good day for pregnant Alabamians who need lawful out-of-state abortion care,” Jenice Fountain, executive director of Yellowhammer Fund, said in a press release on the day of the decision. “The efforts of Alabama’s attorney general to isolate pregnant people from their communities and support systems has failed.”

Editorial Team:
Sahar Fatima, Lead Editor
Carolyn Copeland, Top Editor
Rashmee Kumar, Copy Editor