Your Papers Please.

[Editorial]

Travel in the U.S. is so simple: you get into your car and drive… drive down the street to the corner grocer or drive across the country. You don’t need travel papers to do it.

But under the Republicans, all that has changed! You want an abortion in a state where it is legal? Well, they’re watching you! Drive to a legal abortion clinic, and the eyes of Texas are on you!

In states without strong protections on ALPR data, Texas can request—or, in some systems, directly search—license-plate records showing Texas vehicles at an abortion clinic in another state. (Note: States like Connecticut have passed laws limiting access to ALPR data, but those provisions go into effect on Oct. 1.)

Note: I am using abortion clinics instead of trans clinics because the Trump administration has effectively shut them all down by threatening to withhold Medicaid funding.

But with Texas, they want to control your lives so you grow up to be just like them…

So who can they arrest?

Well, it is tricky, but it basically boils down to anyone who helps facilitate the abortion: You drive them out of state… Bingo! You make the arrangements for them to get an abortion out of state… Bingo!

But if you do it all yourself, they can’t currently do anything to you simply because you obtained a legal abortion in another state.

A caveat: As a lawyer friend likes to say… these are all legal opinions. It’s not final until the last judge bangs their gavel.

Suppose a 25-year-old Texas woman drives to New Mexico, where abortion is legal, gets an abortion, and returns to Texas.

Nope. Under current Texas law, Texas cannot simply prosecute her for having obtained a lawful abortion in New Mexico.

Texas cannot simply say, “You are a Texas resident, therefore Texas law follows you across the New Mexico border and you committed a Texas crime by receiving lawful medical care in New Mexico.”

Now suppose a friend drives a 25-year-old Texas woman to New Mexico, where abortion is legal. She gets an abortion, and they return to Texas. Can Texas do anything to either of them?

Probably not simply because of the trip and the abortion. However, Texas could make their lives miserable by investigating the trip. Prosecutors could examine who paid for the trip, who made the arrangements, and whether anything else occurred that they believe constitutes aiding or abetting an offense under Texas law.

What does all this mean?

Nobody really knows. This is something relatively new. There has never been a way to track people's movements so thoroughly through ALPRs, airport surveillance, and even things like E-Zpass. You can still legally cross the state line—but the government may increasingly be able to know that you did.

[/Editorial]