In the wake of the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, Illinois abortion providers were already scrambling to prepare for an influx of patients from neighboring states. A new story in Law360 reports that state officials and providers are also preparing for potential interstate conflict and litigation.
Professor Robin Fretwell Wilson says that red states bordering Illinois are likely to attempt to pass abortion laws with an enforcement scheme that bypasses state agencies and instead allows private individuals to sue providers and people who help women obtain abortions.
"We have already seen that being copied all over the country," Wilson said. "In these neighboring states, I think we have to pay attention to the arguments people are going to be making in statehouses."
A counteraction from a state like Illinois could be refusing to allow sheriffs to do service of process in those kinds of suits, Wilson said. But depending on what laws its neighbors pass, there could be extended liability, she said.
Read the full Law360 piece.