May 10, 2025

Inside Alabama’s Threats to Prosecute Abortion Helpers

When Roe v. Wade was overturned and abortion became illegal in Alabama, helping people get out of state came with the threat of jail time.

A woman unloads boxes of free reproductive health supplies from a brightly colored bus

Frances Wallace, a digital organizer for the Yellowhammer Fund, unloads boxes of free reproductive health supplies for local residents during a Repro Raven For Your Power bus tour stop in Opp, Alabama, in March. Charity Rachelle/Produced with support from the Magnum Foundation and Commonwealth Fund

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In August 2022, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall made a guest appearance on a local conservative talk radio show. It was two months after the US Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade, and abortion was now illegal in Alabama. And Marshall addressed rumors that he planned to prosecute anyone helping people get abortions out of state.  

“If someone was promoting themselves out as a funder of abortion out of state,” Marshall explained to the host, “then that is potentially criminally actionable for us.” 

This particular threat launched an epic legal battle with implications for some of the most basic American rights: the right to travel, the right to free speech, the right to give and receive help. 

This week on Reveal, reporter Nina Martin spends time with abortion rights groups in Alabama, following how they’ve adapted to one of the nation’s strictest anti-abortion policies—and evolved their definition of help.

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