Texas and Louisiana are moving forward with legal action against an abortion provider in New York who prescribed abortion medication through telemedicine.
On Thursday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul rejected Louisiana’s request to extradite Dr. Margaret Daley Carpenter, who late last month was indicted in Louisiana for prescribing abortion pills via telehealth to a minor patient in that state.
“I will not be signing an extradition order that came from the governor of Louisiana — not now, not ever,” Hochul said at a news conference, citing New York’s shield laws, which are intended to protect physicians from criminal prosecution for providing abortion care to patients in states where it is banned.
Earlier that day, a Texas judge also handed down a fine of $100,000 to Carpenter for prescribing abortion pills via telehealth to a patient in the state. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who filed a civil lawsuit against Carpenter in December, alleged that she violated Texas law by practicing medicine in the state without a local license.
In the Louisiana case, state prosecutors allege that the minor did not want to terminate her pregnancy, but was forced to take the abortion pills by her mother, who ordered them from Carpenter. (The mother is facing the same felony charge as Carpenter.) Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has said the case has “nothing to do with reproductive healthcare” and was instead “about forcing somebody to have an abortion who didn’t want one.”
Carpenter did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment Thursday.
Both the Louisiana criminal case and the Texas civil case are widely considered the first such legal actions against doctors who prescribe abortion care across state lines. They are also a test of shield laws in states such as New York, especially if those cases wind up in federal court.
