Conservatives Reach Beyond State Lines with ‘Bounty Hunter’ Abortion Bills

In the ongoing fight to restrict abortion access in America, conservative lawmakers across the U.S. have now begun pushing so-called ‘bounty hunter bills’ that would attempt to impede residents from pursuing access to abortion and gender-affirming care beyond state lines and punish them for trying, reports NPR. Legal experts say that such bills are legal experiments intended to slowly erode constitutional protections and that, even if they’re not enforced or enforceable, might discourage people from engaging in the underlying conduct. Recently in Missouri, a state representative introduced a measure that would let people sue anyone they suspect of helping a resident get an abortion in another state, while an Idaho bill seeking to ban gender-affirming care for youth would have made it a felony to help a child access care outside the state.

Stephen Vladeck, a constitutional scholar and law professor at the University of Texas School of Law, calls SB 8 “patently unconstitutional under current law,” but says the Supreme Court’s conservative-majority decision to allow it to stand “has enabled and incentivized” state-level Republican legislators to attack other federal rights protected by the court’s decisions.