New York doctor sued for prescribing abortion pills to a Texas woman via telemedicine

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against a doctor in the state of New York alleging the doctor prescribed abortion medication to a woman in Texas therefore violating the state’s strict anti-abortion law.

In the first-of-its-kind lawsuit, Paxton is testing the bounds of conflicting state abortion laws by pursuing litigation against a doctor in New York – where shield laws protect providers from out-of-state investigations and prosecutions.

The 11-page lawsuit, filed in Collin County, Texas, alleges Dr. Margaret Carpenter illegally prescribed the abortion medications mifepristone and misoprostol via telehealth to a 20-year-old woman in Collins County.

The lawsuit claims the 20-year-old woman sought and took the medications without informing the father of the fetus when she was nine weeks pregnant. But he later found out about the medication abortion after the woman had to be taken to the hospital for severe bleeding.

Paxton alleges Carpenter was not permitted to prescribe the medication via telehealth because she is not a licensed physician in Texas and state law only allows for abortion when the patient’s life is at risk or there is a “serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function.”

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The Texas AG claims Carpenter has seen multiple patients in Texas and has done this.

Carpenter is the co-founder and co-medical director of Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, a clinic that provides “telemedicine abortion care to patients in all 50 states.”

Her biography says she has worked in reproductive health for years, volunteering with Planned Parenthood and providing medical and surgical abortions since 1999.

The Independent has asked Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine for comment.

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“Carpenter’s knowing and continuing violations of Texas law places women and unborn children in Texas at risk,” Paxton argued.

Paxton is asking the Texas court to prevent Carpenter from practicing telehealth in the state and impose a $100,000 fine for each violation.

But it’s unclear how far the lawsuit can go given New York’s law protects providers from out-of-state lawsuits like this by refusing to order a defendant, like Carpenter, to comply with extradition, arrest and legal proceedings in other states

The state’s shield law also gives prescribers who are sued the ability to countersue to recover damages.

Paxton has relentlessly pursued litigation against those who provide or seek abortion in the state. He sent threatening letters to medical providers in 2023 after a woman named Kate Cox got explicit permission to obtain a medically necessary abortion.

His lawsuit, of course, has only arisen because the Supreme Court overturned the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Roe made abortion a federal right – preventing each state from outright banning it. But now, with each state responsible for creating its own law, immense legal and social conflict has arisen.

One way those living in states with strict abortion bans, like Texas, have skirted around rules is by using telehealth to obtain abortion medication. But lawsuits like this and others risk the availability of it.