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Will states soon be installing checkpoints like the one established in East Germany in 1961 to prevent its citizens from gaining freedom in the West?

This is a rhetorical scenario today—but maybe not tomorrow. As it so happens two events converged last week that raised such a possibility.

The first event involved a child of 10 who was raped and had to travel from Ohio to Indiana to receive an abortion. The second was the attempt this week by Republicans in the House of Representatives to block the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act. This bill was aimed at guaranteeing the fundamental right for all women to travel across state lines for health care.

“Republicans have ripped away every woman’s right to decide whether or not to keep a pregnancy, and now some Republican lawmakers want to hold women captive in their own states by punishing them for exercising their constitutional right to travel within our country to get the care they need,” said Senator Murray.

The bill passed the House, but now moves on to the Senate. I doubt it will pass. I’m anxious to see which senators will vote for it. Those who don’t vote for it will signify that they don’t believe Americans should have the right to freely travel between states.

A form of punitive, petty, punishment

The obvious . . . every American should have the right to travel from one state to another. This should be a no brainer for those who believe in personal liberty.

What’s behind the efforts of most Republican legislators to refrain from supporting a bill guaranteeing the right for women to freely travel between states?

Abortion.

You see, what the Supreme Court did by overturning Roe was to create domestic chaos. It instantaneously eliminated the right of every American woman to exercise her reproductive rights and handed this power over to individual states. Thus, women in some states now have more rights and freedoms than women in other states.

This was certainly a dereliction of judicial responsibility on the part of the Court. And the Courts’ shortsightedness might have worked—until this week anyway. When all but a few republicans thumbed their noses at supporting the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act.