Attorneys from 15 major cities and localities including New York and Chicago urged the Biden Administration on Thursday to confirm federal agencies won't help enforce state-level abortion bans.
A group of people are protesting at the White House on July 9.
Attorneys representing cities and counties sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, asking them to make clear their agencies won't participate in states that ban abortion.
Without a clear prohibition from the Biden Administration, federal law enforcement could work in conjunction with state or local officials in states where abortion is banned, for example, or federal officials through the Department of transportation could go after people who are traveling to another state for abortion care.
Federal agencies should be told to deny any requests for help with enforcing an abortion ban, restrict any sharing of information that could help state or local officials, and direct civil rights divisions to review any policies that could pose a risk to reproductive rights.
Agencies should revise their agreements with state and local governments if they don't want to enforce abortion laws.
The letter states that this guidance would be in line with President Joe Biden's executive order directing the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to "consider actions" to ensure the safety of abortion patients, providers, and third parties.
Requests for comment from the departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Transportation have not been answered.
Attorneys from New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Baltimore, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Massachusetts, Cincinnati, Columbus, Ohio, Madison, Wisconsin and Pittsburgh signed the letter.
The letter states that community trust is important for law enforcement. It's important to take clear and definitive action against the criminalization of abortion.
Democratic states, localities and the federal government are trying to mitigate the effects of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Wade, which paved the way for a number of state-level abortion bans. In order to combat the harms of state abortion bans, the Biden Administration has imposed a number of directives, including requiring abortions to be performed under federal law when necessary, and creating a task force dedicated to reproductive rights. A number of Democratic-led states have enacted legislation or executive orders to protect people who travel for abortions from places where abortion is not allowed. Austin, Atlanta and Nashville are just a few of the cities that have taken abortion rights into their own hands.
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