More than two dozen newsrooms and press freedom groups sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday, calling on the Justice Department to keep journalists and their employers from being prosecuted for just writing about abortion.

“Rather than risk jail time, fines or legal costs, some news agencies may not be able to publish stories about abortion and possibly even contraceptives.”

At stake is a campaign, led by the National Right to Life Committee, to expand the GOP’s devastating assault on reproductive freedom and other constitutional rights. In mid-June, anticipating that the reactionary US Supreme Court majority would soon overturn Roe vs. Wadethe forced pregnancy group drafted and distributed model legislation to state legislators across the country.

If enacted, the legislation – already pending in the South Carolina Legislature, and other Republican-controlled states will likely follow in the near future – would prohibit “aiding and abetting” anyone. seeking abortion, including “hosting or maintaining a website”. .. that encourages or facilitates efforts to obtain an illegal abortion.”

While the letter, led by Mother Jones and Rewire News Group and signed by 24 other news outlets and trade associations – makes it clear that such a measure “could be loosely interpreted to criminalize news outlets and journalists for simply publishing abortion stories on their websites.

“There is a precedent for state legislatures enacting nearly identical laws that trample on people’s rights, and there is a history of well-funded organizations and individuals targeting news outlets through lawsuits that drain resources and can put newsrooms out of business,” the letter reads. .

Mother Jones, for example, “spent $2.5 million over two years to fend off a lawsuit by a conservative billionaire who claimed he was defamed in one of their 2012 stories,” the letter continued. “The ordeal diverted enormous amounts of time and money from normal day-to-day operations”, and the magazine’s finances “were compromised for years”.

If the “helpful and encouraging” abortion bills are enacted, “news organizations would be vulnerable in states where they have offices, and potentially in states where affected employees reside,” the letter said. “Rather than risk jail time, fines or legal costs, some news agencies may not be able to publish stories about abortion and possibly even contraceptives.”

Essentially, “such laws would allow state governments to dictate what stories can be reported and published, at a time when an independent press is needed more than ever,” the letter noted.

Newsrooms and press freedom groups have implored Garland “to honor the protections of the U.S. Constitution and defend the news organizations that play a vital role in bringing attention to all of our society’s issues.” .

“We ask that you publicly reiterate the freedoms of the press granted under the First Amendment and remind states that they cannot infringe on these rights when the media writes about abortion, that they and their journalists work and live in states where abortion is legal or illegal,” they wrote.

“If a state enacts such legislation,” they added, “we ask that you step in and use any authority granted to the Department of Justice to prevent the general law or provisions that may punish media outlets and journalists”.

The 26 signatories are listed below:

Mother Jones
Rewire Press Group
Scalawag magazine
BuzzFeed News
HuffPost
The Marshall Project
The interception
The nation
The American perspective
The New Republic
The Investigative Reporting Center
capital B
Center for Public Integrity
Cal Matters
chalk beat
Votebeat
Living room
Lady Magazine
Prism
PEN America
Center for Media in Danger
Nonprofit Institute for News
Radio Television Digital News Association
New York News Publishers Association
Media matters to America
Association of News Leaders