News Article: Doctors in the Northeast launch abortion pill pipeline into states with bans

[PaulD]

Washington Post (gift article)

(I didn't see a current thread on abortion. Moderators, if you want to merge this into an existing thread, feel free. As if you need my permission! )

This is an interesting question. If I am in Illinois where abortion is legal and I do something that facilitates an abortion in Texas where it isn't, could Texas extradite me from Illinois? I clearly would need to plan my life to avoid Texas under all circumstances. Could some vigilantes kidnap me and take me to Texas to face murder charges?

 

[Tidewater]

I guess it would depend on the state and on the statute.
Art. IV, Section 2 US Constitution:
"A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime."

It depends on how the statute is written. If someone who never entered a state but committed a crime via the Postal Service, I am not sure such a person could have been said to have "fled the state." Ohio Republican Governor William Dennison used this to protect one of John Brown's Harper's Ferry raiders in 1860. Dennison said, the guy was never in the state requesting extradition, so Dennison denied the requisition.
On the other hand, I would imagine there is a federal statute relating to mailing something to a state that violates state law in the receiving state.

 

[Crimson1967]

What if I had a box of those pills and met someone on the state line and they reached across the line and took it from me and no part of my body crossed the line?

 

[PaulD]

I guess it would depend on the state and on the statute.
Art. IV, Section 2 US Constitution:
"A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime."

It depends on how the statute is written. If someone who never entered a state but committed a crime via the Postal Service, I am not sure such a person could have been said to have "fled the state." Ohio Republican Governor William Dennison used this to protect one of John Brown's Harper's Ferry raiders in 1860. Dennison said, the guy was never in the state requesting extradition, so Dennison denied the requisition.
On the other hand, I would imagine there is a federal statute relating to mailing something to a state that violates state law in the receiving state.

The Federal extradition statute requires that the person sought have fled from the requesting state. I lived in Texas from 1968-70 and 1986-99. I don't think I've been back there since Dec 2001. But in no case did I flee.

As far as a statute regarding mailing, I don't know of one such as you describe, but I'm certainly willing to become better informed. Any lawyer who says that they know all of the law should be avoided.