Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month, leaving abortion law up to the states, Republican-led legislatures in states like Arkansas and Texas have begun considering measures that would make it a crime for women the procedure in other states. . For Griswold, a Democrat, that would be a gross overreach of government power, she said in a Twitter thread Wednesday. “Every American should have the right to choose with whom to start a family, if and when to start a family, and how many children to have,” he wrote. “Pregnancy is never something that should be forced on women by the government.” The court’s ruling, however, has already led nine Republican-led states to ban abortions, and more restrictions are on the horizon. Many Democratic-led states, meanwhile, have sought to strengthen protections for women seeking abortions and the doctors who provide them. The new patchwork of reality promises that legal battles over abortion will continue to play out for years to come. In a conference call with Democratic governors last week, President Biden warned that “people will be shocked when the first state … tries to arrest a woman for crossing a state line to get health care.” Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold speaks at a press conference in Denver in February. (Hyoung Chang/MediaNews Group/Denver Post via Getty Images) The upcoming extradition standoff is rooted in the US Constitution. Article IV, Section II, Clause 2 states, “A person indicted in any State for treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from the Judiciary and be found in another State, shall upon application of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, to surrender to be transferred to the State having jurisdiction of the crime.” The story continues The tricky part comes when a criminal offense in one state is legal in another. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, for example, required Southern slaves who escaped to the North, where slavery was illegal, to be returned upon capture. The imposition of this act due to the strong objections of the repealed candidates is one of the factors that ultimately led to the outbreak of the Civil War. Griswold’s comments Wednesday made it clear that secretaries of state, already on the front lines of overseeing state elections, will play a central role in the looming fight over women traveling out of state to obtain an abortion. “The Secretary of State’s Office plays a unique role in publishing in Colorado,” Griswold wrote Wednesday. “This paperwork must include the government seal, and the Secretary of State has the legal authority to apply the seal to documents like this.” Yahoo News spoke with Griswold about the legal quagmire the high court’s decision has unleashed. The interview has been edited for clarity. Yahoo News: Do you expect a large influx of women traveling to Colorado to get an abortion? Griswold: We think so. There was already an increase from the western states of women who wanted to make decisions about their future and their bodies coming to Colorado. And, frankly, we’re going to see women who can afford to travel from across the nation to states that still treat women as full people, as full citizens. But we will also see, I believe, an increase in the deaths of women. I don’t know if you saw the case over the weekend from Ohio where a 10-year-old who was raped couldn’t access reproductive health services. The idea that you’re going to allow a 10-year-old who’s in a hurry, who could be a victim of incest, and you’re going to force him to carry a child when he’s a child, I think says everything you need to know about the policies being passed across the United States. It’s about controlling women. It is about our degradation as incomplete citizens. Frankly, these extreme lawmakers and Supreme Court justices will have blood on their hands from the extreme policies being adopted across the country. Is the state taking steps to prepare for this? The state of Colorado is the latter [legislative] session passed legislation protecting rights to birth control and abortion care. This was in the face of what many of us believed was coming from the Supreme Court. I think the actions that the governor just took—and I joined with him to make sure that we’re looking at policies and not helping states enforce some of these terrible laws—are important to take. The Secretary of State’s office is the custodian of the state seal — the releases are signed by the governor of Colorado, and then I have to affix the state seal and sign. So, being the 10th woman ever to be elected to public office in the state of Colorado, and caring deeply about how women are treated in this country, it is very important for me to act. And I will not allow my office to participate in the criminalization of abortion patients or providers in Colorado or any other state. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis delivers his 2022 State of the State address at the Capitol in January. (Aaron Ontiveroz/MediaNews Group/Denver Post via Getty Images) How unusual is it for a state to flatly refuse to participate in extradition proceedings due to conflicting laws? We see many states acting this way, refusing to extradite women who must travel or doctors based on laws that limit Americans’ fundamental freedoms. In your statement on Twitter, you said you would not participate in extradition proceedings initiated by other states on abortion issues. Do you expect this to invite litigation? I think whether there’s a court challenge or not, we’re going to stand firm with women and with abortion providers across this country. I am proud that Colorado will continue to defend the freedoms of Americans to make decisions about our bodies and health care without interference from government officials, and that our state will remain a safe place for Americans who need access to this real critical, life-saving care. Given that the Extradition Clause is part of the US Constitution and that conservatives now control the Supreme Court, are you worried about how a legal challenge might play out? I have full confidence in our attorney general, in our ability to uphold our decisions about fundamental freedoms. Make no mistake, this is a broader attack on our fundamental freedoms — including the right to vote, privacy [and] to love freely — all to impose the extremist view of the few on the majority. Whether it’s politicians who put these extreme justices on the Supreme Court and made overturning Roe a possibility, to the all-out assault on democracy and the power of voters to fight back at the ballot box, there is a concerted effort to roll back American liberties. I think there are a lot of issues with the Supreme Court, whether it’s Justice [Clarence] Thomas’ glaring conflict of interest in having a wife involved in the rebellion and recusing himself — which, by the way, is a felony — from the fact that judges are unwilling to keep their word in confirmation hearings about precedent. I think it’s time for good hearted people who believe in freedom to stand up for each other. The vast majority of Americans support access to abortion care. The vast majority of Americans want free and fair elections. In practical terms, let’s say a woman from Texas travels to Colorado to have an abortion. If Texas passes a law to penalize women from traveling to undergo this procedure, how will state officials back in Texas gain access to the knowledge that the abortion took place? Someone close to the person telling them. Texas has criminalized abortion care so far — or thought — that they wanted cab drivers to report to the government. So, of course, there are different ways to learn different information. HIPAA does not cover something like an employer knowing if an employee is traveling. This is a slippery slope in a country that people won’t recognize, and we can never allow a legal challenge to scare us from taking action, because the other side certainly won’t.
