NY clerk refuses to enforce Texas' $100K fine against doctor for sending abortion pills
A New York county clerk on Thursday refused to enforce a Texas court fine of over $100,000 against a New York doctor accused of sending abortion pills to a Texas woman. The case filed against the doctor set up a legal battle that could change the landscape of abortion access in the U.S.
Here's what we know about the case.
People are also reading: Texans share emotional testimony on bills to further restrict abortion pills, travel
Judge Bryan Gantt's filing was the first of its kind in finding a person liable under Texas House Bill 1280, which created steep civil and criminal penalties for illegally terminating a pregnancy. Texas bans abortions in almost all instances except when a pregnant person faces a "life-threatening condition," with no exceptions for rape, incest or fatal fetal anomalies.
The case was also the first to challenge "shield laws" — laws intended to prevent states with abortion bans, like Texas, from punishing doctors in other states that support the procedure, like New York.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in December sued Dr. Margaret Daley Carpenter, who is licensed in New York and co-founded the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine Access in 2022, for allegedly prescribing and mailing mifepristone and misoprostol to a 20-year-old woman from Collin County, Paxton's home turf in North Texas. Both drugs are used to induce abortions and help clear miscarriages.
The original lawsuit noted that the biological father, who was not previously informed about the pregnancy, according to the complaint, took the woman to the hospital after she began to hemorrhage. He later learned she had terminated the pregnancy after he discovered empty abortion pill boxes at the woman's residence. The man then filed a complaint with the attorney general's office, said Ernest Garcia, chief of the attorney general's administrative law division, during a Wednesday hearing, The New York Times reported.
The ruling by Gantt, whom Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in September appointed to the 471st state District Court, is a default ruling that permanently forbids Carpenter from prescribing abortion pills and fines her $100,000, plus around $13,000 in attorney fees, for violating Texas' abortion ban. The fees will accrue at an interest rate of 7.5% each day until paid.
New York's 2022 shield law bars public entities from cooperating with out-of-state investigations into reproductive health care services. It also protects against subpoenas and witness summons, and it prohibits the extradition of lawsuit defendants to other states.
On Thursday, Ulster County (New York) Acting Clerk Taylor Bruck refused to enforce the fine against Dr. Carpenter.
"In accordance with the New York State Shield Law, I have refused this filing and will refuse any similar filings that may come to our office. Since this decision is likely to result in further litigation, I must refrain from discussing specific details about the situation," Bruck said in a prepared statement.
Paxton has condemned the clerk's refusal, saying he is "outraged" that Bruck won't fine a "radical abortionist" for "illegally peddling dangerous drugs across state lines."
"New York is shredding the Constitution to hide lawbreakers from justice, and it must end," Paxton continued in a statement posted on X. "I will not stop my efforts to enforce Texas's [sic] pro-life laws that protect our unborn children and mothers."
More on Texas' abortion ban: Houston area midwife charged with performing illegal abortions amid Texas' near-total ban
In addition to the civil penalties ordered by the Texas judge, Carpenter is also facing criminal charges in Louisiana for prescribing an abortion pill to a teenager in that state. On Thursday, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry announced he had signed an extradition warrant for the OB-GYN, whom a state grand jury indicted in January for violating Louisiana's abortion ban.
"There is only one right answer in this situation, and it's that that doctor must face extradition to Louisiana where she can stand trial and justice will be served," Landry said.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul swiftly denied the request.
"Doctors take an oath to protect their patients. I took an oath of office to protect all New Yorkers," Hochul wrote on social media. "So let me be clear: I will not sign Louisiana's extradition order — not now, not ever."
On Thursday, Hochul also voiced support for Bruck's refusal to enforce the Texas fine against Dr. Carpenter, saying, "New York is grateful for his courage and common sense."
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: NY clerk won't enforce Texas fine against doctor for abortion pills
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