Hundreds of thousands of women in the U.S. could face legal restrictions that prevent them from travelling to receive abortion care as a result of being on parole. The decision to allow interstate travel may fall on low-level state employees, who could choose to prioritize their own beliefs over the wishes of the women they supervise, according to advocates.
The Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit that tracks criminalization data and works to shine a light on the harms caused by mass incarceration, stated in a briefing last week that the end of the abortion law could have significant consequences. Parole is an extension of a prison sentence, while parole is a sentence for minor crimes.
With the sole authority to approve or deny a trip across state lines for abortion care, a parole officer may choose to prioritize their own personal beliefs about abortion over the wishes of the individual under their control.
There are 13 states with so-called "trigger laws" that automatically ban abortion in the event of a court decision. The figure is the result of estimates by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Data by state and sex are not included in the agency's most recent statistics.
In some instances, out-of-state travel is an option. In many areas of the country, state employees charged with supervision of parolees will have the final say over whether a pregnant person can travel to get medical care in their own state.
It is possible that they will delay the decision until it is no longer safe for the individual to have an abortion.
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