The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which eliminated the constitutional right to abortion, has prompted concerns that Republican-led state legislatures might try to prohibit women from traveling out of state for the procedure. Any such interstate travel ban would be constitutionally defective for at least two reasons.
First, the courts have repeatedly recognized that the Constitution protects the right to travel. During debates before ratification of the 14th Amendment, that right was specifically invoked as one of the privileges or immunities of citizenship that the amendment was designed to protect from state infringement.
