On Thursday, the New York County Clerk blocked Texas doctors from filing legal action against New York doctors to send abortion pills to Texas women.
The unprecedented move will bring the interstate abortion war to a new level and set the stage for a legal battle between states that ban abortion and high stakes in favour of abortion rights.
The dispute is widely expected to reach the Texas Supreme Court, which has a nearly identical abortion ban on New York. New York has a shielding law aimed at protecting abortion providers who send medicines to patients in other states.
New York is one of eight states that enacted the Telehealth Abortion Shield Act after the Supreme Court overturned the national abortion right in 2022. The law prevents staff from handing over abortion providers to other states or responding to subpoena and other legal actions.
This is the first time the Abortion Shield Act has been used by a New York County Clerk.
This case includes Dr. Margaret Daly Carpenter of New Paltz, New York. He will work with telehealth abortion organizations to provide abortion medications to patients across the country. In December, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Dr. Carpenter, who is not licensed in Texas, accusing him of sending abortion pills to Texan women in violation of the state's ban.
Dr. Carpenter and her attorneys did not appear at a court hearing in Texas last month. Collin County District Court Judge Brian Gant issued a default ruling, ordering Dr. Carpenter to pay a $113,000 fine and sending abortion pills to Texas.
On Thursday, citing the New York Shield Act, deputy scribe for Ulster County, Kingston, New York, Taylor Brook said he would not approve Texas' motion to enforce the order in Collin County. He also refused to file a subpoena asking Texas to pay the penalty and force him to comply with the Texas ruling.
“According to New York State Shield Act, I will refuse this submission and refuse any similar submissions that may come to our office,” Brooke said in a statement. “This decision is likely to lead to further litigation and we must refrain from discussing specific details about the situation.”
Texas Attorney General Paxton vowed to keep pushing. “New York refuses to refuse to pursue the enforcement of civil rulings against fundamental abortions who illegally use dangerous drugs across state boundaries,” he said in a statement. “New York is shredding the constitution to hide law violations from justice, and that must be over. It will not halt its efforts to enforce Texas' life support laws that protect the fetus and mothers.”
Legal experts said Texas' next step was for the state to challenge the Shield Act in state or federal courts in New York.
New York Attorney General Letitia James previously sent guidance to courts and officials throughout the state to instruct them to follow the Shield Act, indicating how they could be followed and which specific actions were prohibited.
“I commend Ulster County Clerk for doing the right thing,” James said in a statement. “The New York Shield Act was created to protect patients and providers from out-of-state anti-selective attacks. We do not allow anyone to undermine the ability of healthcare providers to provide the care they need to patients. My office will always advocate for New York healthcare professionals and the people they serve.”
Texas was the first state with an abortion ban that launched legal action against state abortion providers with shield laws. In January, the first criminal charges against Shield's in-laws abortion provider were filed in Louisiana's second state. In that case, the state's large ju judge issued criminal charges against Dr. Carpenter, accusing her of violating an abortion ban near Louisiana by sending pills to the state.
Last month, Louisiana officials issued an order to hand over Dr. Carpenter. This was quickly rejected by New York Governor Kathy Hochul.
“We will not sign an extradition order from the governor of Louisiana.
Dr. Carpenter and her attorneys have not commented on the Texas or Louisiana case. Telemedicine's Abortion Coalition, an organization co-founded by Dr. Carpenter, has issued a statement in response to the incident. “The Shield Act is essential to protecting and enabling 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 Telemedicine Abortion Shield Act has become an important strategy for abortion rights advocates. Under these laws, which have been in use since the summer of 2023, health care providers in states where abortion is legal send more than 10,000 abortion medications a month to patients in states with abortion bans or restrictions.
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.
According to a complaint filed from the Texas Attorney General's office, the woman, who was nine weeks pregnant, asked the “biological father of the fetus” to take her to the emergency room in July “due to bleeding or severe bleeding.” The man “surmised that his biological mother actually did something to contribute to the miscarriage,” the lawsuit said, and he returned to their home in Colin County, where he “discovered the two presented drugs from Carpenter above.”
At a Colin County Court hearing last month, Ernest C. Garcia, director of the Administrative Law Division of the Attorney General's Office, said the man had “submitted a complaint with the Texas Attorney General's Office.”
