Planned Parenthood CEO: Attempts to Ban Out of State Abortions ‘Harkens Back to Slavery’

Planned Parenthood CEO Alexis McGill Johnson is concerned the option of traveling out of state for abortions could be next on the chopping block as numerous states move to ban abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

Any attempt to ban such travel, she told MSNBC, “harkens back to slavery.”

“We have seen such extreme laws being introduced in states like Missouri and Louisiana, criminalizing not just tele-medication abortion but also things like contraception, IUDs, perhaps IVFs, and that idea you couldn’t travel across your own state boundary is just such a bizarre construct, right? It just, obviously, harkens back to slavery,” Johnson told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Monday.

Multiple corporations have announced they will be covering travel costs for employees who want an abortion, but live in a state where the procedure is banned. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in his concurring opinion on Friday that the right to travel out of state for an abortion would be protected under the constitution. The legality of abortions being decided state-by-state, however, has opened the potential for possible attempts to ban such travel, critics have suggested.

“It’s hard to tell at this point, but I think it’s likely that [the prosecutors] will go after the people that help the woman get the abortion,” Drexel University law professor David Cohen told the New York Times in a report examining the legality of receiving abortions out of state.

Missouri lawmakers were considering a proposal earlier this year that would allow private citizens to sue anyone who assists a state resident in getting an abortion.

Johnson said Planned Parenthood will be fighting state by state through litigation and ballot initiatives to prevent any attempts to further restrict abortion access.

I think lawmakers are going to have to see that not only will people demand to have this right in their state, but also are going to resist any efforts to criminalize and further invade their privacy around these decisions. I mean, like, what are you going to do in Missouri? You have to take a pregnancy test before you leave the state and come back? I mean, it’s just kind of outrageous the ways in which the actual surveillance and criminalization is going to be experienced.

Watch above via MSNBC.