In cases that could have a major impact on abortion access in the United States, a Texas judge on Thursday stopped sending abortion medications to New York doctors to patients and provided medications He ordered him to pay a penalty of more than $100,000 to do so. To one woman.
The case is widely expected to arrive at the Supreme Court in an escalating battle between states banning abortion and in favour of abortion rights, and become a pivotal test. It essentially pits Texas, which has a nearly identical abortion ban against New York. New York has the “Telehealth Abortion Shield Act,” which aims to protect abortion providers who send medicines to patients in other states.
These shield laws have been an important abortion rights strategy ever since the Supreme Court overturned the national abortion rights in 2022. It was submitted to a health care provider who prescribes and sends abortion medication to patients in other states.
Such laws represent a severe departure from the typical interstate practice of honoring subpoena and sharing information. Under the telehealth abortion shield law, which has been in use since the summer of 2023, health care providers in states where abortion is legal will have more than 10,000 abortion drugs per month for patients in states with abortion bans or restrictions. I'm sending it.
The Texas lawsuit was filed in December by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton against Dr. Margaret Daly Carpenter of New Paltz, New York. The lawsuit alleges that Dr. Carpenter, who is not licensed in Texas, supplied abortion medicines to Texas women.
The order signed Thursday by Collin County District Court Judge Brian Gant said Dr. Carpenter is “permanently prohibited from prescribing abortion-inducing drugs to Texas residents.” Violation of an injunction can result in a mildly empty order from a judge, which could carry additional financial penalties or prisons. The judge also ordered a fine of about $100,000 and a fine of about $13,000 in lawyers' fees, court fees and interest.
As New York's Shield Act prohibits cooperation with out-of-state legal action, Dr. Carpenter and her attorneys either failed to respond to the Texas case or for a hearing in front of a judge on Wednesday. He did not appear in court.
The 40-minute session in the Northern Dallas courthouse was particularly quiet and sedative on such controversy and issues of national importance.
Two attorneys in the Attorney General's Office asked the judge to issue default judgments in their favor. Essentially it is an award against a defendant who has not shown or provided a response.
In his court filing, Dr. Carpenter did not respond within a certain period of time, and Texas law states that “the defendant, her non-response, will not be able to establish factual liability for all claims of the plaintiff. He acknowledged it.”
The defense table was empty. Approximately 30 minutes after the hearing, Judge Gant said, “I realized she wasn't here.” He asked the Attorney General's lawyer that morning if he had heard of Dr. Carpenter.
When they said no, the judge asked the enforcement officer to “call the hall” and announced Dr. Carpenter's name in the hallway outside the courtroom. Less than a minute later, the enforcement officer returned and said, “Your honor, I called Margaret Daily Carpenter three times without responding.”
Texas was the first state with an abortion ban that launched legal action against state abortion providers with shield laws. However, other states with abortion bans are expected to comply with the lawsuit.
In January, the first criminal charges against Shield's in-laws abortion provider were filed. In that case, the Louisiana state's large ju judge accused Dr. Carpenter of violating Louisiana's near abortion ban by issuing criminal charges against him and sending pills to the state.
On Thursday, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said he signed a warrant attempting to hand over Dr. Carpenter to his state for him to stand trial. New York Governor Kathy Hochul cited the state shield law and replied, “I will not sign an extradition order that came from the governor of Louisiana.”
The Texas and Louisiana cases are expected to lead to court battles with New York State, respectively.
New York's refusal could lead Louisiana to ask federal court to order extradition, experts said. The potential outcome is unknown, but Mary Ziegler, a law professor and abortion expert at the University of California, Davis, said that extradition is not required for accused who are suspected of crime and not in the state where they committed the crime. He said there is a legal precedent. Don't run away from that situation.
In civil lawsuits, Texas is likely to file a petition with state courts in New York to seek to collect financial penalties. If New York cites its Shield Act to oppose the Texas penalty, as expected, the case is constitutional in allowing one state to refuse to cooperate with another state. State legal action may transform into a federal or supreme court battle.
Dr. Carpenter was unable to reach comments on the Texas or Louisiana incident. The Abortion Coalition of Telemedicine, the organisation she co-founded, issued a statement in response to the incident. “The Shield Act is essential to protect and enable abortion care, regardless of the patient's zip code or ability to pay,” the coalition said. “They are the fundamentals of ensuring that everyone has access to reproductive health care as a human right.”
The Texas lawsuit accuss Dr. Carpenter of providing a 20-year-old woman with two medications used in standard abortion regimens, mifepristone and misoprostol. Usually used for 12 weeks after pregnancy, mifepristone blocks the hormones needed for pregnancy, and after 24-48 hours misoprostol causes similar contractions to miscarriage.
A complaint filed by the Texas Attorney General's Office said that a woman who was nine weeks pregnant said she would “take her to the emergency room in July “due to bleeding or severe bleeding.” Biological father.” In court Wednesday, Ernest C. Garcia, chief of the Administrative Law Division of the Attorney General's Office, said the female partner at the hospital “knows that she was pregnant.” Maybe she wasn't true about that. ”
When the man returned home, he found the medicine and realized they had been taken to induce an abortion, Garcia said, “The individual filed a complaint with the Texas Attorney General's Office. “I added.
The Texas incident is an example of an increasing number of state patterns with abortion bans. The man has reported to authorities that his female partner has an abortion. There have been other such cases in Texas, and Texas President John Shego will be filing illegal death lawsuits against doctors, organizations or those who have been supported in the coming weeks. He said in an interview. Arrange abortions for male female partners.
Emily Cochran Reports of contributions.
