By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) -A New York doctor was indicted by a grand jury in West Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Friday for prescribing an abortion pill that was taken by a teenager there.
Margaret Carpenter and her practice, Nightingale Medical, were charged with criminal abortion by means of abortion-inducting drugs, a felony, according to an indictment provided by the West Baton Rouge District Attorney’s office. The minor’s mother was also charged.
The case, which appeared to be among the first criminal charges brought over prescribing abortion drugs across state lines, will likely be an early test of the power of states that criminalize abortion to prosecute providers outside their borders, and the ability of states that support abortion rights to shield providers from such prosecutions. Carpenter was also sued civilly by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last month.
“It is illegal to send abortion pills into this state and it’s illegal to coerce another into having an abortion,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement. “We will hold individuals accountable for breaking the law.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said on Friday that the state would not comply with any request to extradite Carpenter.
New York Attorney General Letitia James in a statement said: “This cowardly attempt out of Louisiana to weaponize the law against out-of-state providers is unjust and un-American.”
Carpenter, who is based in New Paltz, is a co-founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, which supports nationwide access to abortion through telemedicine.
“The case out of Louisiana against a licensed New York doctor is the latest in a series of threats that jeopardizes women’s access to reproductive healthcare throughout this country,” the Coalition said in a statement.
New York is among the Democratic-led states that have passed so-called shield laws aiming to protect doctors who provide abortion pills to patients in other states. The law says New York will not cooperate with another state’s effort to prosecute, sue or otherwise penalize a doctor for providing the pills, as long as the doctor complies with New York law.
Medication abortion accounts for more than half of U.S. abortions. It has drawn increasing attention since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision allowing states to ban abortion, which more than 20, including Louisiana, have done.
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)
