Abortion

What the Hell Is Abortion Trafficking Anyway?

Idaho, settle down please. You're doing too much.

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Idaho's so-called abortion trafficking statute makes it a crime for an adult to procure an abortion or obtain abortion-inducing drugs for a pregnant, unemancipated minor, with the intent to conceal the abortion from the minor's parents or guardian. Rewire News Group illustration

Jess and Imani are talking about Idaho—again!

Now that the state has made its argument that people who visit emergency rooms at Medicare-funded hospitals needing an abortion can go pound sand, it’s arguing before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that anyone who “recruits, harbors, or transports” a minor within Idaho for the purposes of “procuring an abortion” out of state can be criminalized as an abortion trafficker.

As Jess says, Matsumoto v. Labrador isn’t about “abortion trafficking”—whatever that means—it’s about criminalizing direct aid to folks who need abortions and forcing parental involvement in minors’ reproductive health-care decisions despite contrary Supreme Court precedent.

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Transcript

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