Conservative activists are pushing ‘trafficking’ laws to prevent women from traveling for an abortion

Anti-abortion activists are looking to highways as a new battleground in their efforts to prevent people from accessing abortions.

A central Texas town attempted to make it illegal for people to travel on certain roads through their jurisdiction for the purpose of receiving an abortion, a novel strategy that may prove the future for anti-abortion activists, The Washington Post reported.

So-called “trafficking” laws are gaining ground in Texas and are a continuation of similar attempts to limit travel for abortion care elsewhere.

Llano, Texas, considered one such measure in late August, hoping to prevent people traveling west from Austin and Round Rock from using their highways en route to states where abortion is accessible, like New Mexico.

“This really is building a wall to stop abortion trafficking,” Mark Lee Dickson, the anti-abortion activist behind the effort, told the Post.

Local ordinances rely on private citizens to sue those who received abortion care — the same controversial mechanism as a statewide abortion care assistance ban passed in 2021. 

A state judge ruled that the private citizen enforcement mechanism of the statewide abortion ban was unconstitutional in late 2021, but it did not implement an injunction to stop the law.

Llano Mayor Marion Bishop admitted to the Post the law would be difficult to enforce and is mostly symbolic.

“Is it absolutely necessary? No,” Bishop said. “Does it make a statement? Yes, it does.”

The Texas cities of Odessa and Lubbock are among the municipalities considering similar measures, the Post reported.

Abortion is almost completely banned in Texas after the state passed new restrictions following the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade last year.

Other states have also attempted to limit the activity of people attempting to go out of state to receive abortion care. On Wednesday, the Alabama attorney general defended his claim that people who assist others in receiving abortion care can be prosecuted under state law.