Cite as: 506 U. S. 263 (1993)
Opinion of the Court
actions with that particular right is the District Court's finding that "[s]ubstantial numbers of women seeking the services of [abortion] clinics in the Washington Metropolitan area travel interstate to reach the clinics." 726 F. Supp., at 1489. That is not enough. As we said in a case involving 18 U. S. C. § 241, the criminal counterpart of § 1985(3):
"[A] conspiracy to rob an interstate traveler would not, of itself, violate § 241. But if the predominant purpose of the conspiracy is to impede or prevent the exercise of the right of interstate travel, or to oppress a person because of his exercise of that right, then . . . the conspiracy becomes a proper object of the federal law under which the indictment in this case was brought." United States v. Guest, 383 U. S. 745, 760 (1966).5
Our discussion in Carpenters makes clear that it does not suffice for application of § 1985(3) that a protected right be incidentally affected. A conspiracy is not "for the purpose" of denying equal protection simply because it has an effect upon a protected right. The right must be "aimed at," 463 U. S., at 833 (emphasis added); its impairment must be a conscious objective of the enterprise. Just as the "invidiously discriminatory animus" requirement, discussed above, requires that the defendant have taken his action "at least in part 'because of,' not merely 'in spite of,' its adverse effects
5 Justice Stevens finds "most significant . . . the dramatic difference between the language of 18 U. S. C. § 241" and that of § 1985(3), in that the former "includes an unequivocal 'intent' requirement." Post, at 335. He has it precisely backwards. The second paragraph of § 241 does contain an explicit "intent" requirement, but the first paragraph, which was the only one at issue in Guest, see 383 U. S., at 747, does not; whereas § 1985(3) does explicitly require a "purpose." As for Justice Stevens' emphasis upon the fact that § 1985(3), unlike § 241, embraces "a purpose to deprive another of a protected privilege 'either directly or indirectly,' " post, at 335: that in no way contradicts a specific intent requirement. The phrase "either directly or indirectly" modifies "depriving," not "purpose." The deprivation, whether direct or indirect, must still have been the purpose of the defendant's action.
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