Inside the fight over clinics that help US women defy abortion bans
The United States has become a patchwork of abortion access, with every state setting its own rules – and clinics are pushing legal boundaries to reach women in states where abortion is banned. Now, that system faces a major test.
Every month, thousands of American women thwart abortion bans in their home states by turning to telehealth clinics willing to prescribe abortion medicines online and ship them anywhere in the country.
Whether this is legal, though, is a matter of debate. And two legal cases involving a New York doctor could test the shield laws that some states have passed to protect doctors who ship abortion pills to states where they are illegal.
At the centre of the debate is Dr Margaret Carpenter, who faces a felony charge in Louisiana for supplying abortion medication through the mail to a pregnant teen there. A Texas judge also fined Carpenter $100,000 (€88,000) after the state accused her of prescribing abortion medication for a woman near Dallas.
So far, the prosecution hasn't progressed thanks to New York's shield law, which has protected Carpenter from extradition to Louisiana. But other telehealth centres that offer abortion pills are watching closely, and some legal experts say the issue will likely make its way to the US Supreme Court.
Decades ago, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of two prescription medicines – mifepristone and misoprostol – to terminate pregnancies. This is the most common method for abortion in the US.
But telehealth abortions that cross state lines have become more popular since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a 1973 ruling that established national abortion rights, in 2022.
That ruling prompted some states to restrict abortion access. Currently, 19 states have abortion bans or limits that are tighter than those set by Roe v. Wade.
In return, more women have been seeking abortion medication via telehealth clinics.
The prescribing process usually takes place entirely online, with the patient answering a series of health-related questions and consent forms. Pills can arrive in less than a week.
'This has been the safety net… of allowing people who don't have the ability to travel out of state to get abortion care,' said Greer Donley, a University of Pittsburgh law professor and abortion law expert.
When dealing with medications not related to abortion, doctors are often able to write prescriptions for patients in other states – but usually they must have a license to practice medicine there, according to Mei Wa Kwong, executive director of the The Center for Connected Health Policy.
About half of US states have shield laws, which aim to protect doctors and patients in states where abortion is legal from civil or criminal lawsuits in states with abortion bans or restrictions.
Through New York's shield law, the state has blocked Louisiana and Texas' efforts to punish Carpenter. But Louisiana and other restrictive states are now taking a closer look.
"These are not doctors providing health care. They are drug dealers," Republican Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill told state lawmakers as she promoted a bill that would expand who can sue and be sued in abortion medication cases.
"They are violating our laws," Murrill said. "They are sending illegal medications for purposes of procuring abortions that are illegal in our state".
Julie Kay, who works with Carpenter, said providers won't be "bullied and intimidated" into ceasing operations.
Other telehealth abortion providers said they also won't be deterred by legal threats.
"I have been working in this field for 25 years and this is part of the work," said Dr Rebecca Gomperts, a Dutch physician and founder of Aid Access, an abortion pill supplier.
"It's something that we all anticipated would happen," she said of the legal challenges.
Another California-based physician who prescribes abortion pills to women in all 50 states told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that he believes he is protected by the state's shield law, but is also taking precautions.
"I'm not going to be traveling outside of California for a very long time," the doctor said.
Enzymes are the hidden machinery behind many of today's medical, industrial, and environmental advances – but conventional enzyme design methods have reached their limits. That's where Laurynas Karpus (30), Vykintas Jauniškis (29), and Irmantas Rokaitis (28) come in.
These Lithuanian innovators have pioneered an AI-powered platform that generates custom enzymes from scratch, free from the limitations of nature's templates. Thanks to their groundbreaking invention, they were named among the top ten Tomorrow Shapers in the European Patent Office's 2025 Young Inventors Prize.
Their tool, developed through their company Biomatter, is known as the Intelligent Architecture™ platform. It doesn't just tweak what nature already offers – it creates entirely new enzymes designed for specific industrial and medical uses.
'By creating the technology for new enzyme design that is only limited by our imagination, we are unlocking a key bottleneck in solving health and sustainability problems in the 21st century,' the trio said in a joint statement.
The platform combines machine learning, physics-based modeling, and experimental testing to continuously improve its enzyme outputs. The result? Scalable, efficient, and highly tailored biological tools that can accelerate everything from drug development to green chemistry.
The journey began in 2017 at the Institute of Biotechnology at Vilnius University, where the trio collaborated on early AI enzyme-generation models. One of their first breakthroughs was ProteinGAN, a machine-learning model that demonstrated the feasibility of generating novel, functional enzymes. That success led them to co-found Biomatter in 2018 alongside scientists Rolandas Meškys and Donatas Repečka.
Biomatter has since partnered with biotech leaders like Kirin, to produce Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMOs) – essential nutrients for infant health – and with ArcticZymes Technologies, to develop better enzymes for gene therapy, vaccine manufacturing, and bioprocessing.
'Our goal is to make enzyme engineering faster, cheaper, and to solve a problem that couldn't be solved before,' says Rokaitis, emphasising Biomatter's ability to meet specific industry needs beyond traditional engineering in the field. 'Each enzyme we build has the potential to revolutionise that specific part of the industry and make it much more sustainable,' Karpus adds.
Their work comes at a pivotal time. With the enzyme market expected to grow from €10 billion in 2025 to €15 billion by 2034, the need for next-generation enzyme solutions is critical. What's more, the Lithuanian team's innovation supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – specifically SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure).
Biomatter's AI-engineered enzymes aren't just a scientific advance – they're a promise of a more adaptive and sustainable future.
For Karpus, this future – and our approach to it – is as much about mindset as it is about science: 'My advice to younger generations would be to not be afraid of building, because the future is not set in stone: the future is what you make of it.'
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Euronews
7 hours ago
- Euronews
Inside the fight over clinics that help US women defy abortion bans
The United States has become a patchwork of abortion access, with every state setting its own rules – and clinics are pushing legal boundaries to reach women in states where abortion is banned. Now, that system faces a major test. Every month, thousands of American women thwart abortion bans in their home states by turning to telehealth clinics willing to prescribe abortion medicines online and ship them anywhere in the country. Whether this is legal, though, is a matter of debate. And two legal cases involving a New York doctor could test the shield laws that some states have passed to protect doctors who ship abortion pills to states where they are illegal. At the centre of the debate is Dr Margaret Carpenter, who faces a felony charge in Louisiana for supplying abortion medication through the mail to a pregnant teen there. A Texas judge also fined Carpenter $100,000 (€88,000) after the state accused her of prescribing abortion medication for a woman near Dallas. So far, the prosecution hasn't progressed thanks to New York's shield law, which has protected Carpenter from extradition to Louisiana. But other telehealth centres that offer abortion pills are watching closely, and some legal experts say the issue will likely make its way to the US Supreme Court. Decades ago, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of two prescription medicines – mifepristone and misoprostol – to terminate pregnancies. This is the most common method for abortion in the US. But telehealth abortions that cross state lines have become more popular since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a 1973 ruling that established national abortion rights, in 2022. That ruling prompted some states to restrict abortion access. Currently, 19 states have abortion bans or limits that are tighter than those set by Roe v. Wade. In return, more women have been seeking abortion medication via telehealth clinics. The prescribing process usually takes place entirely online, with the patient answering a series of health-related questions and consent forms. Pills can arrive in less than a week. 'This has been the safety net… of allowing people who don't have the ability to travel out of state to get abortion care,' said Greer Donley, a University of Pittsburgh law professor and abortion law expert. When dealing with medications not related to abortion, doctors are often able to write prescriptions for patients in other states – but usually they must have a license to practice medicine there, according to Mei Wa Kwong, executive director of the The Center for Connected Health Policy. About half of US states have shield laws, which aim to protect doctors and patients in states where abortion is legal from civil or criminal lawsuits in states with abortion bans or restrictions. Through New York's shield law, the state has blocked Louisiana and Texas' efforts to punish Carpenter. But Louisiana and other restrictive states are now taking a closer look. "These are not doctors providing health care. They are drug dealers," Republican Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill told state lawmakers as she promoted a bill that would expand who can sue and be sued in abortion medication cases. "They are violating our laws," Murrill said. "They are sending illegal medications for purposes of procuring abortions that are illegal in our state". Julie Kay, who works with Carpenter, said providers won't be "bullied and intimidated" into ceasing operations. Other telehealth abortion providers said they also won't be deterred by legal threats. "I have been working in this field for 25 years and this is part of the work," said Dr Rebecca Gomperts, a Dutch physician and founder of Aid Access, an abortion pill supplier. "It's something that we all anticipated would happen," she said of the legal challenges. Another California-based physician who prescribes abortion pills to women in all 50 states told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that he believes he is protected by the state's shield law, but is also taking precautions. "I'm not going to be traveling outside of California for a very long time," the doctor said. Enzymes are the hidden machinery behind many of today's medical, industrial, and environmental advances – but conventional enzyme design methods have reached their limits. That's where Laurynas Karpus (30), Vykintas Jauniškis (29), and Irmantas Rokaitis (28) come in. These Lithuanian innovators have pioneered an AI-powered platform that generates custom enzymes from scratch, free from the limitations of nature's templates. Thanks to their groundbreaking invention, they were named among the top ten Tomorrow Shapers in the European Patent Office's 2025 Young Inventors Prize. Their tool, developed through their company Biomatter, is known as the Intelligent Architecture™ platform. It doesn't just tweak what nature already offers – it creates entirely new enzymes designed for specific industrial and medical uses. 'By creating the technology for new enzyme design that is only limited by our imagination, we are unlocking a key bottleneck in solving health and sustainability problems in the 21st century,' the trio said in a joint statement. The platform combines machine learning, physics-based modeling, and experimental testing to continuously improve its enzyme outputs. The result? Scalable, efficient, and highly tailored biological tools that can accelerate everything from drug development to green chemistry. The journey began in 2017 at the Institute of Biotechnology at Vilnius University, where the trio collaborated on early AI enzyme-generation models. One of their first breakthroughs was ProteinGAN, a machine-learning model that demonstrated the feasibility of generating novel, functional enzymes. That success led them to co-found Biomatter in 2018 alongside scientists Rolandas Meškys and Donatas Repečka. Biomatter has since partnered with biotech leaders like Kirin, to produce Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMOs) – essential nutrients for infant health – and with ArcticZymes Technologies, to develop better enzymes for gene therapy, vaccine manufacturing, and bioprocessing. 'Our goal is to make enzyme engineering faster, cheaper, and to solve a problem that couldn't be solved before,' says Rokaitis, emphasising Biomatter's ability to meet specific industry needs beyond traditional engineering in the field. 'Each enzyme we build has the potential to revolutionise that specific part of the industry and make it much more sustainable,' Karpus adds. Their work comes at a pivotal time. With the enzyme market expected to grow from €10 billion in 2025 to €15 billion by 2034, the need for next-generation enzyme solutions is critical. What's more, the Lithuanian team's innovation supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – specifically SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure). Biomatter's AI-engineered enzymes aren't just a scientific advance – they're a promise of a more adaptive and sustainable future. For Karpus, this future – and our approach to it – is as much about mindset as it is about science: 'My advice to younger generations would be to not be afraid of building, because the future is not set in stone: the future is what you make of it.'
France 24
2 days ago
- France 24
US overdose capital Baltimore on long road to recovery
The 40-year-old and his small team visit neighborhoods considered "hot spots" for drug trafficking to hand out the precious antidote, sold under the brand name Narcan. The easy-to-use nasal spray has become a key tool in the fight against the deadly US opioid crisis, claiming 750,000 lives between the late 1990s and 2022. "Just over the past week, we distributed 200 Narcan kits," Trionfo, who oversees an addiction assistance program with the local branch of Catholic Charities, told AFP. On their route, the team spots a man sprawled out amid a pile of rubbish in the corner of a stairwell. They hand him a box of Narcan and a brochure about their organization. The man takes it with one hand, as he awkwardly hides a syringe behind his back. Their last Narcan kit goes to another man, legs covered in brown scars, who is waiting near a dilapidated building. These scenes are not uncommon in this East Coast city, which is located about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Washington and is renowned for endemic crime. Baltimore was the setting of the hit television series "The Wire" in the early 2000s, depicting its burgeoning drug scene from a variety of angles. And last year, the New York Times dubbed the city the "American overdose capital." Between 2018 and 2022, the drug-related mortality rate was nearly twice as high as in any other major American city. The leading killer: fentanyl. 'Tremendous efforts' Since the height of the opioid crisis in 2021, the outlook has improved in much of the country, including in Baltimore. The number of fatal overdoses in the city plummeted by 35 percent last year, to 680 down from 1,043 in 2023. The city's proactive policies, coupled with preventative work done by Catholic charities in Baltimore's communities have helped make a dent in the problem. "We've had tremendous efforts throughout the city to get people into treatment, and then we've also had tremendous efforts in getting Naloxone out there," said Michael Fingerhood, head of addiction medicine at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. Distributed broadly for about a decade, Narcan has worked like a "fire extinguisher," Fingerhood said. In Baltimore, Narcan is now available everywhere: pharmacies, vending machines throughout the city, even in libraries. Funded by restitution The drop in mortality in Baltimore is also linked to the composition of the fentanyl being sold there, Fingerhood said. "The drug supply has less potent fentanyl and has additives that are less likely to cause overdose." Awareness of the risks associated with the powerful synthetic opioid has also grown among users, pushing them to be more "cautious," said Bakari Atiba, community engagement director at Charm City Care Connection. The nonprofit assists addicts in Baltimore -- known as Charm City -- and recently received funding from a restitution program fueled by lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and distributors. "I'm not saying people are going to stop using," Atiba said. "That's not even our goal." © 2025 AFP
France 24
5 days ago
- France 24
Gaza rescuers say Israeli fire kills 31 in latest deadly shooting near aid centre
The Gaza civil defence agency said 31 people were killed and "about 200" wounded Wednesday when Israeli troops fired on people waiting to enter a food distribution centre. "We transported at least 31 martyrs and about 200 wounded as a result of Israeli tank and drone fire on thousands of citizens... on their way to receive food from the American aid centre," civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP. The Israeli military had no immediate comment. Bassal said thousands of Palestinians had been gathering since 2am in the hope of reaching the US and Israeli-backed food distribution centre. "Israeli tanks fired several times, then at around 5:30 am intensified their fire, coinciding with heavy fire from drones targeting civilians," he said. Medical officials at Shifa and Al-Quds Hospitals said at least 25 people were killed as they approached the aid site near the former settlement of Netzarim, southwest of Gaza City. Ten other people were killed in other Israeli military strikes in Khan Younis in the south of the enclave, they added. Restrictions imposed on media in the Gaza Strip and the difficulties of access on the ground mean the death tolls could not be independently verified. There have been a series of deadly shootings since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) first opened aid distribution points in the Palestinian territory on May 27, as Israel faced mounting international condemnation over the humanitarian conditions. After similar incidents in recent days, the Israeli army said it fired warning shots to distance "suspects" who were approaching the troops and posed a threat. The war erupted after Hamas-led militants took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in an October 7, 2023, attack, Israel's single deadliest day. Israel's military campaign has since killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and flattened most of the coastal enclave.
