Pro-life advocates are passionate about protecting the unborn.
And generally we agree with them. But sometimes even the best intentions lead down a hazardous path.
Such as the current push against what is called "abortion trafficking." It's a movement in Texas to have cities pass laws against using local roads to travel to another state where abortion is still legal.
Such measures would allow just about anyone to sue a person who transports a woman over those roads in order to obtain an abortion.
City officials in Llano considered doing so last month, but tabled the proposal. The City Council will reconsider it this month. The Washington Post reports Lubbock and Odessa are considering the idea.
This is a very slippery slope. Because if a city can make traveling for abortion subject to legal peril, we have to wonder what the next step would be. Make it illegal to travel to a state where marijuana is legal? How about making it a crime to travel to a state like Oklahoma or Louisiana where casinos are allowed? Maybe pass a law against driving through a dry county to get to a liquor store across the line?
Texans value freedom. Once you give government the power to restrict something so basic a traveling freely on public roads, then there's a real danger freedom will take a backseat to moral outrage.
Hopefully, cool heads will put on the brakes and stop this idea in its tracks.