Texas has a near-total ban on abortion with only a few narrow exceptions. Toward the end of last year, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a New York doctor for sending abortion drugs to a pregnant Texas resident. Paxton pointed out that his state specifically prohibits a doctor from mailing abortion drugs to a patient. In addition, doctors who don’t have Texas medical licenses aren’t allowed to prescribe medicine to people in the state through telehealth services.
The doctor, Margaret Carpenter, has vigorously advocated for reproductive rights. She helped found the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine in 2022, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court removed the constitutional right to abortion. Carpenter didn’t respond to the lawsuit, so the judge issued a default judgment against her. He ordered Carpenter to pay $113,000 and stop prescribing abortion drugs to Texas residents.
Paxton then asked the court in the New York county where Carpenter lives to file the judgment. This would allow for its enforcement. However, Ulster County Clerk Taylor Bruck refused to file the judgment. Bruck cited the “shield law,” which generally bars New York courts and officials from cooperating when a state with an abortion ban tries to prosecute or sue a New York doctor for providing abortion via telemedicine to a patient in that state, assuming that the doctor complied with New York law. New York Governor Kathy Hochul praised Bruck for upholding the shield law and rejecting the Texas judgment.
This may cause Texas to challenge the shield law in court. Other pro-choice states have enacted similar laws, so the result of any litigation could affect the enforceability of those laws as well. It’s possible that the Supreme Court might eventually address the issue.
The Texas lawsuit isn’t the only legal trouble confronting Carpenter. The doctor also faces criminal prosecution in Louisiana after allegedly prescribing an abortion drug to a woman there. However, Governor Hochul has firmly dismissed the notion of extraditing Carpenter to Louisiana to face the charge.
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