Texas attorney general Ken Paxton is suing a New York doctor for prescribing abortion pills to a Texas resident, despite not having a medical license in the Lone Star State.
The civil lawsuit, filed Thursday and announced Friday, alleges Dr. Margaret Carpenter provided abortion-inducing drugs to a 20-year-old woman in Collin County, Texas. State law forbids a physician or medical provider from mailing abortion pills and prescribing drugs through telemedicine without being licensed in that state. The out-of-state doctor is not being served criminal charges.
The litigation represents the first challenge to interstate shield laws that Democratic states have adopted to protect abortion access and medication following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
New York enacted such a law in June 2023 to protect abortion providers from out-of-state investigations and prosecutions.
The unnamed woman took the abortion medication in July when she was nine weeks pregnant, the lawsuit recounts. As a result, she suffered severe bleeding and ultimately lost the unborn child. The biological father, who took the mother to a nearby hospital, was not aware she was pregnant or taking abortion medication.
Carpenter, founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine Access, allegedly sent mifepristone and misoprostol to the pregnant woman. The drugs can be used to terminate pregnancies up to ten to twelve weeks.
Texas bans abortion at all stages of pregnancy in most cases, though there are exceptions for life-threatening conditions, ectopic pregnancies, and premature ruptures of membranes that would make the fetus unviable. There are no exceptions for rape, incest, or severe fatal abnormalities.
Paxton asks the court to prohibit Carpenter from further violating Texas law and order her to pay $100,000 for every violation of the state’s near-total abortion ban, per the suit. The Republican attorney general is seeking up to $250,000.
Those who violate the abortion law could face life in prison, at least $100,000 fines, and the loss of their Texas medical license.
“In this case, an out-of-state doctor violated the law and caused serious harm to this patient. This doctor prescribed abortion-inducing drugs—unauthorized, over telemedicine—causing her patient to end up in the hospital with serious complications,” Paxton said in a statement.
“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.”