“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 said.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing a New York doctor because she prescribed the abortion pill to a Texas woman. The case could be the first legal battle between a pro-life state where the abortion pill is illegal and a pro-choice state where the abortion pill is dispensed like any other legal drug, The Texas Tribune reported Friday.
New York has a shield law that enables willing doctors to send abortion pills to recipients in other states where the pill is illegal. Texas says that is unacceptable and it will seek legal remedies notwithstanding state laws that protect such activity. The question of whether one state’s laws trump another state’s legislation is an open question that predates the Civil War, the Tribune noted.
“Regardless of what the courts in Texas do, the real question is whether the courts in New York recognize it," Greer Donley, a University of Pittsburgh professor who is a recognized authority on conflicting state laws, told The Tribune.
Paxton says Dr. Margaret Carpenter sent abortion pills to a 20-year-old woman in Collin County. The woman allegedly ingested the pills at the nine-week stage of her pregnancy and soon suffered from extreme bleeding. She asked the father of the child to help her get to a hospital for medical attention, but he did not know that the woman was pregnant or wanted to abort, according to the court filing.
“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 said in a statement, according to The Guardian.
The lawsuit does not mention whether the pills actually induced an abortion or if the bleeding prompted further health issues. Mifepristone and misoprostol, the chemicals found in abortion pills, are reportedly more than 95% effective in producing a miscarriage if taken before the tenth week of pregnancy. Texas abortion law does not criminalize the recipient of the abortion, just the provider.
Paxton has petitioned a Collin County court to stop Carpenter from breaking Texas law and force her to compensate the state with $100,000 every time she violates Texas abortion laws, which are among the strictest in the US. Residents of Texas who break the abortion law can be sentenced to life in prison, receive a fine of up to $100,000, and be stripped of their medical license.
Carpenter is not licensed to practice medicine in Texas. She is also an abortion rights activist who founded the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, a national group that assists doctors operating in shield law states to provide abortion counseling and abortion pills to women in states where abortion is illegal.
Libby’s Desk
Commentary and must-reads from Libby’s desk, straight to your inbox.
TPM Newsletter
The Post Millennial’s top stories, delivered to your inbox.
