Behind the Scenes of Abortion Travel Bans

With the post-2022 torrent of abortion restrictions forcing pregnant people in several states to go long distances to seek care, opponents of abortion rights have pushed for new measures taking aim at such travel.

Across the country, state and local officials have proposed abortion travel bans, which prohibit people from using certain public roads to obtain an abortion, with some bans going into effect in several cities and counties in Texas. Many of the ordinances were drafted and pushed for by some of the same activists behind other bills targeting reproductive health care access, and records obtained by American Oversight provide new insight into how those activists have engaged with county officials in Texas. 

In 2023, Texas’ Cochran, Goliad, Lubbock, and Mitchell counties all passed abortion travel ban ordinances that relied on citizen reporting as the sole enforcement method, allowing private citizens to sue individuals they believe assisted travel for an abortion. 

Each of those bans was drafted by anti-abortion activists Mark Lee Dickson and former Texas Solicitor General Jonathan Mitchell. Dickson is the founder of the “Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn” initiative, which pushes local ordinances that target the ways people might seek an abortion, including by traveling or by procuring medication by mail. Dickson is also the director of Right To Life of East Texas, an anti-abortion rights group that lobbies for restrictions across Texas. Mitchell is the creator of Texas’ Senate Bill 8, the state’s near-total abortion ban, which allows private citizens to sue people they suspect to be involved in “aiding” or “abetting” abortion.

Records obtained by American Oversight show Dickson and Mitchell contacting Mitchell County officials in July 2023 to advocate for a travel ban. In a letter to Mitchell county commissioners, he offered to represent the county at no cost if it were sued over the ban.

“I commit to you that Mitchell Law PLLC will represent Mitchell County, at no cost to the county or its taxpayers, in any litigation that results from a decision to enact this ordinance provided by Mark Lee Dickson,” Mitchell wrote.

Other records show the Lubbock County Commissioners were in possession of a Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn chart of cities and counties that had prohibited abortion, as well as a letter signed by several state lawmakers urging local officials to adopt similar ordinances.

The Push for Travel Bans in Other States

Travel bans have been proposed in cities and counties located on the main roads out of states where abortion is illegal, as well as in conservative areas on the outskirts of Democrat-led states. 

In March, Source New Mexico reported that Dickson and Mitchell had also drafted, edited, and promoted multiple anti-abortion ordinances that had recently passed in conservative New Mexico cities and counties. According to Source, records showed Dickson and Mitchell “pitching the measures, directing their language, overseeing changes, and in exchange for adopting them, offering to defend the local New Mexico governments in court for free.”

Dickson reportedly declined to respond to Source’s question about how he and Mitchell could afford to represent local governments pro bono, but said that there were several groups that saw such ordinances as a way to end abortion nationwide. One such group Dickson pointed to was the far-right Thomas More Society, which has for decades backed efforts to restrict abortion access in the U.S. and was also involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. 

In April, anti-abortion rights activists in Amarillo, a city in the Texas Panhandle, said that, with Dickson’s assistance, they had collected the required number of signatures needed to force the city council to reconsider a travel ban. The Texas Tribune reported that one Amarillo citizen involved in the effort had said Dickson sought the support of families from other cities to get signatures in time.

Discussion of the Amarillo ban had begun in October, one day after Lubbock County approved its abortion travel ban. In May, the Amarillo City Council declined to immediately approve the abortion travel ban.

Also in May, a federal judge in Alabama ruled that abortion-rights advocates can proceed with lawsuits against the state attorney general over threats to prosecute people who assist with out-of-state travel for the procedure. According to reporting from the Washington Post, Mitchell is representing a Texas man seeking information about his ex-partner’s abortion, which allegedly occurred out of state.

In December 2024, a federal appeals court partially reinstated Idaho’s abortion travel ban, which originally took effect in May 2023 and was temporarily blocked by a district judge that November. The law prohibits adults from assisting with the provision of a minor’s abortion, including through travel, and is punishable with two to five years in prison. In September, a federal judge blocked enforcement of a similar law in Tennessee.

Legal experts have questioned the legality of the bans, claiming that they could violate rights to travel and to obtain care where it is legal. American Oversight is investigating threats to abortion rights and has filed dozens of public records requests across the country seeking information about efforts to restrict access to reproductive health care, including through the passage of travel bans. Read more about our investigations here.