Texas has sued a New York doctor for prescribing abortion pills to a woman near Dallas, seeking to defund laws passed by Democrat-controlled states to protect physicians after Roe v. Wade was overturned in the US. One of the first challenges.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the lawsuit in Collin County on Thursday and it was announced on Friday.
Such prescriptions made online and over the phone are a major reason Abortions have increased Across the US, even as state restrictions begin to take effect. most of Abortion in America involves pills Instead of processes.
Mary Ruth Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, School of Law, said the challenge of adapting the laws, which blue states are expected to begin adopting in 2023, is anticipated.
And this can have devastating effects on prescriptions.
“Will doctors be more afraid to send pills to Texas even if they're protected by shield laws because they don't know whether they're protected by shield laws?” he said in an interview on Friday.
The lawsuit accuses Dr. Margaret Daly Carpenter of New York of violating Texas law by providing the drugs to a Texas patient and seeks up to $250,000. No criminal charges are involved.
Texas bans abortion at all stages of pregnancy and has been one of the most aggressive states against abortion rights. It began enforcing a state law in 2021 – even earlier than that US Supreme Court overturns Roe vs. Wade And opened the door to state restrictions – which banned almost all abortions, allowing citizens to sue anyone who performs an abortion or assists someone in performing an abortion.
Paxton said the 20-year-old woman who received the pills – mifepristone And misoprostol, which is commonly used in medication abortions — ended up in the hospital with complications. Only after this, the state said in its filing, did the man described as “the biological father of the unborn child” learn of the pregnancy and abortion.
“In Texas, we value the health and lives of mothers and babies, and that's why out-of-state doctors can illegally and dangerously prescribe abortion-inducing drugs to Texas residents,” Paxton said in a statement. Can't write.”
A phone message left for Carpenter was not immediately returned, nor was an email sent to the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, where she is co-medical director and founder.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement that the state will “protect our providers from unjust efforts to punish them for doing their job.”
He said in the statement, “Abortion is and will remain legal and protected in New York. As other states move to attack those who provide or receive abortion care, New York must continue to be a safe haven for abortion access. Proud.” ,
Anti-abortion advocates who legally challenged the Biden administration's regulations regarding mifepristone are devising provocative and unusual ways to further limit it. Abortion pill access when Trump takes office Next year. They feel emboldened to challenge the use of the pills and seek ways to ban it under a Republican-controlled Congress and a conservative U.S. Supreme Court supported by the White House.
Earlier this year, US Supreme Court announced its decision A group of anti-abortion doctors and their organizations lacked the legal standing to sue to revoke the US Food and Drug Administration's approval of mifepristone. But since then, the Republican state attorneys general of Idaho, Kansas and Missouri have sought to tighten some of the regulations surrounding the pills — including a ban on telemedicine prescriptions.
Also this year, Louisiana became the first state to do so reclassify drugs As a “controlled dangerous substance”. They can still be determined, but require additional steps to reach them.
Lawmakers in at least three states have introduced bills next year aimed at banning or restricting the use of the pills.
Tennessee state Representative Gino Bulloso, who is sponsoring the legislation there, said, “I started thinking about how we could provide additional deterrence to companies that violate criminal law and an opportunity for the families of unborn children.” May be able to provide solutions.” This includes a provision to ban the use of medicines for abortion.