Texas and Louisiana cases against a New York doctor over abortion pills sets up a showdown over shield laws designed to protect abortion providers.
A New York doctor's alleged decision to send abortion pills to patients in Texas and Louisiana has pitted the blue state's shield law against the two red states' strict abortion bans. Texas didn't bring criminal charges against Dr.
Maggie Carpenter, but she is charged with a felony in Louisiana for allegedly prescribing abortion pills to a pregnant minor. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has rejected Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry’s request to extradite Carpenter, saying she would sign the order “not now, not ever.' Meanwhile, Texas State District Judge Bryan Gantt ordered Carpenter to pay a $100,000 penalty as well as attorneys' fees for allegedly breaking a Texas law by prescribing abortion medication via telemedicine. The cases set up showdowns between Democratic-led New York and Republican-led Texas and Louisiana. New York's shield law is designed to protect its abortion providers who prescribe the drugs to patients in states with abortion bans. Texas' and Louisiana's bans are so strict that they don't make exceptions for cases of rape and incest. Most Republican-controlled states began enforcing tighter restrictions on abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, opening the door for states to ban abortion. And most Democratic states have adopted laws that aim to protect their residents from investigation or prosecution under other states’ laws. At least eight states offer legal protections to healthcare providers who prescribe abortion pills, the most common method of abortion in the U.S., to patients in states where abortion is banned. Carpenter is a co-founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, or ACT, a New York-based nonprofit that provides technical and legal support for telemedicine providers. ACT was founded in 2022 after Roe fell. Another co-founder, Julie Kay, who is also executive director, said in a statement after the Texas order: “Despite ongoing attempts by anti-abortion state officials to restrict access to abortion care, particularly medication abortion, we want to be clear: medication abortion remains safe, legal, and available via telemedicine.” Texas sued Carpenter in December for allegedly prescribing abortion pills to a woman near Dallas. Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton alleged that the 20-year-old woman ended up in a hospital with complications. It was only after she was hospitalized that the man described as “the biological father of the unborn child” learned of the pregnancy and the abortion, the state said in court documents. Gantt noted in his order fining Carpenter that she didn’t file any answer or responsive pleading in the case and didn't appear in a Texas court for a hearing. He also issued an injunction barring her from prescribing abortion medication to Texas residents. In a statement following the judge's order, Paxton's office called it “the first case in the nation to hold doctors accountable” for providing the drugs in a state where they are illegal. The case against Carpenter in Louisiana appears to be the first instance in which charges have been brought against a doctor accused of prescribing abortion pills to a person in another state. An arrest warrant was issued in Louisiana last month for Carpenter after a grand jury indicted her in connection with prescribing abortion pills online to a pregnant minor. She was charged with criminal abortion by means of abortion-inducing drugs. Authorities said the girl — whose age hasn't been specified — experienced a medical emergency and had to be transported to the hospital after taking the medication. The indictment came months after Louisiana became the first state with a law reclassifying mifepristone and misoprostol — a two-drug regimen that can be used to end pregnancies through the 10th week — as “controlled dangerous substances.” The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says there are decades of evidence that mifepristone and misoprostol are safe and effective. Louisiana's ban allows doctors convicted of performing abortions, including one with pills, to be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison and fined up to $200,000. Stengle writes for the Associated Press.
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