Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit on behalf of the state against a New York-based doctor for prescribing abortion pills to a woman near Dallas, his office said Dec. 13.
"In this case, an out-of-state doctor violated the law and caused serious harm to this patient," Paxton, a Republican, said in a statement regarding the lawsuit, which he filed Dec. 12 in Collin County. "This doctor prescribed abortion-inducing drugs -- unauthorized, over telemedicine -- causing her patient to end up in the hospital with serious complications. In Texas, we treasure the health and lives of mothers and babies, and this is why out-of-state doctors may not illegally and dangerously prescribe abortion-inducing drugs to Texas residents."
Paxton's office said Dr. Margaret Daley Carpenter, founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, "unlawfully provided a Collin County resident with abortion-inducing drugs that ended the life of an unborn child and resulted in serious complications for the mother, who then required medical intervention." His office argued that Texas law prohibits dispensing abortion-inducing drugs by mail or from treating patients without a valid Texas medical license.
New York Attorney General Letitia James replied in her own statement that "abortion is, and will continue to be, legal and protected in New York."
"As other states move to attack those who provide or obtain abortion care, New York is proud to be a safe haven for abortion access," James, a Democrat, said Dec. 13. "We will always protect our providers from unjust attempts to punish them for doing their job and we will never cower in the face of intimidation or threats. I will continue to defend reproductive freedom and justice for New Yorkers, including from out-of-state anti-choice attacks."
The lawsuit is in effect a test case about what may happen when various state abortion laws passed since the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization contradict one another. It is also a test of so-called shield laws, passed primarily by Democratic-led states in an effort to prevent the prosecution of abortion providers within their states by states with bans or other restrictions.
The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, and therefore opposes direct abortion. After Dobbs, church officials in the United States have reiterated the church's concern for both mother and child. They have called to strengthen available support for those living in poverty or other causes that can push women toward having an abortion.
