South Dakota recently passed a controversial law banning abortion except if the life of the mother is at risk. This caused a huge uproar across the nation on this most divisive of domestic issues.
The policy of this blog is to not discuss the question of whether abortion should be legal. That is the only domestic topic I avoid. The legality of abortion is almost never discussed in a clear, level-headed way by advocates of any side. Shouting and rational discourse are antithetical. I avoid the Israeli-Palestinian issue for the exact same reason.
However, the Ohio legislature is consider a bill that is much more draconian than South Dakota's and has much broader implications outside the abortion realm.
A central Ohio paper reports that the Ohio bill would not only make it illegal for a woman to have an abortion. But it goes much further. It would also make it illegal for a woman to travel across state lines for an abortion.
Just when you think you are so cynical that nothing can astonish you, something astonishes you.
Is there any chance that such a provision would be constitutional? Does a state have the right to regulate what a citizen does in another state? Will anti-gay marriage states jail their citizens who go to Massachussetts or Vermont to get hitched? If a New York resident visits a casino in Connecticut and lights up a cigarette indoors, will he be slapped with a big, fat fine when he returns to the Empire State? If the Ohio bill is allowed, then all bets are off.
When I read of this provision, the thing that immediately came to mind was the Fugitive Slave Act.
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