Findings

Congress finds the following: (1) The right to travel freely and voluntarily among the several States is one of the chief privileges and immunities guaranteed to all citizens of the United States by the 14th Amendment and one of the fundamental rights guaranteed to all persons under the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. (2) Section 5 of the 14th Amendment empowers Congress to enforce, by appropriate legislation, its provisions. (3) Article 1, section 8, clause 3 of the Constitution of the United States empowers Congress to regulate commerce among the several States. (4) The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that a citizen of one State who travels in other States, intending to return home at the end of his journey, is entitled to enjoy the Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States that he visits (Saenz v. Roe, 526 U.S. 489, 501 (1999) (citing Corfield v. Coryell, 6 F. Cas. 546 (No. 3,230) (C.C.E.D.Pa.1823); Edwards v. California, 314 U.S. 160 (1941); United States v. Guest, 383 U.S. 745 (1966))). (5) The Supreme Court long ago decided that one of the privileges which the Constitution guarantees to citizens of 1 State is the fundamental right to travel to another State to seek and obtain services lawful in that State, including medical services, on terms of substantial equality with the citizens of that State (Toomer v. Witsell, 334 U.S. 385, 396 (1948); Hicklin v. Orbeck, 437 U.S. 518, 525 (1978); Doe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179, 200 (1973) (citing Ward v. Maryland, 79 U.S. 418 (1870)); Chalker v. Birmingham & N.W.Ry. Co., 249 U.S. 522, 527 (1919); Shaffer v. Carter, 252 U.S. 37, 52, 53 (1920)). (6) Since the 2022 Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., 142 S. Ct. 2228 (2022), States and localities have proposed and enacted legislation attempting to interfere with the ability to travel for reproductive health care.