Editorial: Protecting abortion rights

Senate Bill 1, approved by the Legislature on Friday, is a legal fortress built to protect a person’s right to access or provide abortion services in Hawaii, even as that right is disappearing on the mainland.

Emboldened by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, which overturned Roe v. Wade and a woman’s constitutional right to obtain an abortion, conservative legislatures have moved swiftly to severely restrict the procedure or ban it outright.

Not only that: Anti-abortion activists and some lawmakers in those states want to enforce those restrictions beyond their borders. They would prevent their citizens from traveling to other states to get abortions, or threaten prosecution or lawsuits aimed not only at the patient, but at those who enable her, in states where abortion is legal.

Enter SB 1. It would reaffirm with more specific language the scope of abortion rights in Hawaii. But the bill’s more significant purpose is to block other states from interfering. Among other things, it would block certain legal efforts — subpoenas, demands for surrender, summons to testify, enforcement of a judgment or order and the like — to prosecute or sue a patient or health provider for abortion-related care provided legally here, but that would be illegal in the patient’s home state.

It’s hard to say if SB 1 is overkill. Abortion already is legal in Hawaii, and has been since 1970, predating Roe. Legal experts say it’s unlikely a state can prohibit its citizens from crossing state lines to get an abortion, on constitutional grounds. But whether a state could — or would — prosecute citizens who get out-of-state abortions is a murkier question, one without a clear precedent.

Abortion laws now vary from state to state, ranging from near-total bans to full right of access. Laws that define new restrictions on abortion can be vague or ill-informed — a predictable consequence of turning a medical procedure into a political football — making it difficult to determine if the patient has a legal right to an abortion based on her specific health condition. This is especially concerning when pregnancy complications are life-threatening.

In fact, five women and two doctors have sued the state of Texas, saying the women were denied medically necessary abortions there because of “widespread confusion in the medical community” about when a doctor may legally terminate a pregnancy.

Those who oppose legal abortion in Hawaii are dismayed by SB 1. But whether or not one supports abortion rights, it should be beyond dispute that a vague law — one in which you can’t figure out if you’re breaking it — is bad law.

SB 1 aims to make clear to the patient and health care provider that obtaining an abortion in Hawaii is legal and protected. It’s unfortunate that politics has made SB 1 necessary, but here we are.

The governor should sign this bill into law.