Helping the helpers: a victory in the fight to fund abortions in Alabama

Host: Noah Parrish, Gender Justice Communications Director
Guests: Jess Braverman, Gender Justice Legal Director and Paige Suelzle, Litigation Counsel at The Lawyering Project

In this episode of The Gender Justice Brief we talk with The Lawyering Project’s Paige Suelzle about a recent victory for abortion funds—and for the First Amendment—in a case that is likely to have broad regional and national repercussions.

When the Dobbs decision was announced on June 25, 2022, abortion became illegal in Alabama overnight. By the end of that summer, Alabama’s Attorney General threatened to criminalize people who help Alabamians from leaving the state to access legal abortion—including abortion funds like The Yellowhammer Fund, based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama—which had a chilling effect on providers and funds.

Represented by The Lawyering Project, the Yellowhammer Fund fought this threat in federal court, and in May 2024 received a preliminary ruling: their case can move forward, and the fund can resume assisting people while the case progresses.

“The right to interstate travel is one of our most fundamental constitutional rights,” wrote U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson in his preliminary ruling. “Alabama can no more restrict people from going to, say, California to engage in what is lawful there than California can restrict people from coming to Alabama to do what is lawful here.” 

References from the podcast and additional resources:

The Lawyering Project’s timeline of the case

The Yellowhammer Fund

National Network of Abortion Funds

Our Justice (Minnesota’s abortion fund)

SCOTUS Chat: Can States Ban Emergency Abortion Care? Episode of the Gender Justice Brief discussing EMTALA

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