Do you remember the Fugitive Slave Act? It criminalized not only slaves
who'd escaped to non-slave states, but also anyone who helped them flee.
That law has troubling echoes in a new law, passed by the Republican Senate
and House, that will make it illegal to transport a girl from a state
requiring parental consent to get an abortion in another one.
The Fugitive Slave Act forced individuals who did not believe in slavery to
collaborate in maintaining it. In states that had banned slavery, it
compelled law enforcement officials to return escaped slaves to their
masters, and coerced ordinary citizens into supporting this process. It
isolated slaves from outside assistance, by threatening to imprison anyone
who would help them escape.
Isolation is also the goal of the benignly named Child Custody Protection
Act, which will become law if the House and Senate work out their
differences. It targets girls who already feel they cannot talk to their
parents without risking disaster. It leaves them on their own, because those
who might have tried to help them will face jail if they do. Whether a
sister, an aunt, a grandmother, counselor, or friend, anyone could be
