Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, has filed a lawsuit against a New York doctor who allegedly prescribed abortion drugs to a woman in the Lone Star State, in violation of Texas law.
Paxton accused Dr. Margaret Carpenter of sending pills from New York to a 20-year-old woman in Collin County, Texas, where the woman allegedly took the drug while she was nine weeks pregnant, according to the lawsuit .
When she started bleeding heavily, she asked the baby’s father, who did not know she was pregnant, to take her to the hospital.
The record does not indicate whether the woman successfully terminated her pregnancy or whether she experienced long-term medical complications from taking mifepristone and misoprostol.
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit accusing a New York doctor of prescribing abortion drugs to a Texas woman in violation of the Lone Star State’s laws. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, file)
Paxton’s lawsuit is the first attempt to test legal protections when it comes to states with conflicting abortion laws since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, ending federal protection in the matter.
Texas has enacted a ban on abortion with few exceptions, while New York State protects access to the procedure and has a shield law that shields providers from investigation and prosecution at the out of state, which was seen as implicit permission for doctors to send abortion pills through the mail. States subject to restrictions.
Texas has promised to pursue cases like this regardless of protective laws, although it’s unclear what the courts might decide on the issue, which involves extraterritoriality, interstate commerce and others. legal issues. New York law allows Carpenter to refuse to comply with Texas court orders.
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It is also unclear whether New York courts would side with protecting Texas law, which prohibits prescribing abortion-inducing drugs by mail and prohibits treating Texas patients or prescribing drugs by mail. through telehealth services without a valid Texas medical license.
The woman allegedly took mifepristone and misoprostol when she was nine weeks pregnant. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Texas abortion laws prohibit prosecuting a woman for having an abortion, but allow doctors or others who help a woman undergo the procedure to be prosecuted.
The lawsuit says Carpenter, the founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, knowingly treated Texas residents despite not being a licensed Texas physician and not licensed to practice telemedicine in the state . Paxton urged a Collin County court to enjoin Carpenter from violating Texas law and impose civil penalties of at least $100,000 for each violation.
Texas law states that doctors cannot prescribe abortion medications by mail and prohibits doctors without a Texas license from providing telehealth services or prescribing medications to patients in the Lone Star State. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, file)
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“In this case, a foreign doctor violated the law and caused serious harm to this patient,” Paxton said in a statement. “This doctor prescribed abortion-inducing drugs – unauthorized, via telemedicine – which caused his patient to end up in the hospital with serious complications. In Texas, we cherish the health and lives of mothers and children. babies, which is why out-of-state doctors cannot illegally and dangerously prescribe abortion-inducing drugs to Texas residents.”
Carpenter also works with AidAccess, an international provider of abortion medications, and helped create Hey Jane, a telehealth abortion provider.
