Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing a New York doctor for breaking the law and prescribing abortion medication to Texans across state lines.
The lawsuit accuses Margaret Daley Carpenter, co-founder of The Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine (ACT), of prescribing abortion pills to people in Texas via telehealth appointments.
Abortion pills are illegal in Texas.
The Hill notes, “New York, like many other Democratic-leaning states, has a shield law in place protecting providers from out-of-state investigations and prosecutions if they prescribe or send abortion medication to people living in states with abortion restrictions.”
According to the lawsuit, Carpenter mailed abortion pills to a 20-year-old girl in Collin County, Texas, who used them to abort her baby.
The lawsuit states:
About mid-May 2024, a 20-year-old female resident of Collin County, Texas became pregnant. The mother of the unborn child did not communicate her pregnancy to the biological father of the unborn child. The mother did not have any life threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from the pregnancy that placed her at risk of death or any serious risk of substantial impairment. The mother proceeded to utilize telemedicine or telehealth services and received, through Carpenter, two abortion-inducing drugs or prescriptions. The first was a box for the drug mifepristone, 200 mg, followed by the “#1” and the directions to take 1 tablet by mouth and to “take this medication first.” The second was a pill bottle of misoprostol 200 mcg with directions to take 4 tablets (i.e., 800 mcg.) after the mifepristone.
It continues:
On July 16, 2024, the mother asked the biological father of her unborn child to be taken to the hospital because of hemorrhage or severe bleeding. After the mother was seen by health care professionals at a hospital in Collin County, Texas, the biological father of the unborn child was told that the mother of the unborn child was experiencing a hemorrhage or severe bleeding as she “had been” nine weeks pregnant before losing the child. The biological father of the unborn child, upon learning this information, concluded that the biological mother of the unborn child had intentionally withheld information from him regarding her pregnancy, and he further suspected that the biological mother had in fact done something to contribute to the miscarriage or abortion of the unborn child. The biological father, upon returning to the residence in Collin County, discovered the two above-referenced medications from Carpenter.
Carpenter’s conduct, according to Paxton, violates the Texas Health and Safety Code’s prohibition on prescribing abortion-inducing drugs via telemedicine.
The lawsuit is seeking $100,000 for every violation of the state’s abortion laws and an injunction to stop her from continuing to send the drugs to Texas.
New York Attorney General Letitia James released a statement vowing to protect abortionists from “unjust attempts” to punish them for doing their job.”
“Abortion is, and will continue to be, legal and protected in New York,” James said. “We will never cower in the face of intimidation or threats.”
