is texas Sue against a New York doctor For prescribing mifepristone and misoprostol – pills used for medication abortion – to a Texas resident via telemedicine, an alleged violation of the state's strict abortion law.
Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit Thursday in Collin County Civil Court against Dr. Margaret Daly Carpenter, founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine. Carpenter does not face criminal charges, but the state is seeking a fine of up to $250,000.
This is the first time Texas has sued an out-of-state doctor for providing abortion services to a Texas patient via telemedicine. Specifically, New York, where Carpenter is based, has one “Slope Law” It is designed to protect doctors who prescribe and ship abortion pills to patients in other states, including states like Texas where abortion is outlawed.
“No matter what Texas courts do, the real question is whether New York courts recognize it,” said Greer Donnelly, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. told Texas Tribune,
according to ComplaintA 20-year-old woman who became pregnant sometime in mid-May was prescribed mifepristone and misoprostol at an unknown time by Carpenter. The woman, who is not named in the lawsuit, experienced adverse side effects from the pills and asked her partner to take her to the hospital on July 16 due to bleeding or severe bleeding.
The complaint states that at the hospital, the woman's partner was told that she was “nine weeks pregnant before losing the baby”, leading him to conclude that she had “deliberately hidden information about her pregnancy from him, And he further suspected‖ that the woman “had actually done something to cause a miscarriage or to contribute to an abortion.” According to the complaint, she had not previously told her partner that she was pregnant. Upon returning to their home, the woman's companion found two drugs allegedly given to the woman by Carpenter.
The complaint does not mention when the woman received the medicine.
Texas has one of the strictest abortion laws in the country. The state has an almost complete ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions if the mother's life is in danger but no exceptions in cases of rape and incest. According to the complaint, the unnamed 20-year-old woman “did not have any life-threatening physical condition caused by, related to, or arising from the pregnancy that would place her at risk of death or any serious risk of significant harm.”