Kathy Hochul vows to protect NY doctor who shipped abortion pills to Louisiana woman against local law

Additionally, the governor stated that the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022 had no influence on the state's abortion regulations, which includes allowing late-term abortions. This follows Louisiana's criminal indictment of Dr. Margaret Carpenter who has been accused of shipping abortion medication to the mother of a pregnant teen, who wanted to keep the baby but was forced to take the medication to terminate her pregnancy.

"In the state of New York, at my direction, we have put in place strict shield laws that anticipated this very situation," said Hochul. "After 49 years of having the established law of the nation overturned by this Supreme Court, we knew that in the state of New York that we had providers who could be vulnerable."

"Louisiana has changed their laws," she continued, "but that has no bearing on the laws here in the state of New York. Doctors take an oath to protect their patients. I took an oath of office to protect all New Yorkers, and I will uphold not only our Constitution but the laws of our land."

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill signed an extradition form earlier this month for Dr. Carpenter to appear. She and her company Nightingale Medical, PC, have been charged with criminal abortion by means of an abortion-inducing drug, which is a felony under state law. The majority of abortions are banned in Louisiana with exceptions for rape and incest. The teen's mother has also been charged with a felony for purchasing the abortion pills, The Post Millennial previously reported.

This appears to be one of the first cases of its kind in the post-Roe v. Wade era. Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry (R) addressed the charges against Carpenter in a video, saying, "Let me be clear on what this case is about. This is about a case in which a minor in Louisiana got pregnant. This minor was excited to have a baby, and she was actually planning a gender reveal party."

"Her mom conspired with a New York doctor to get a chemical abortion pill in the mail and then forced that minor to take it," he continued, adding, "This pill ended up ending her pregnancy and that baby's life."