Up-to-date York doctor accused in Louisiana for sending abortion tablets there

The great state jury in Louisiana accused a Up-to-date York doctor of providing abortion tablets of a resident of Louisiana. It seems that the case for the first time was submitted to the abortion supplier for sending tablets to the state with a ban on abortion.

The allegations mean a recent chapter in the escalation rate between states that prohibit abortion and those that want to protect and expand access to it. This questions one of the most critical strategies used by you, which support the rights of abortion: provisions regarding the protection of the cover aimed at providing legal protection to doctors who prescribe and send abortion tablets to states with prohibitions.

The allegations were brought against Dr. Margaret Carpenter, who acted in accordance with the Up-to-date York law of abortion telemedicine, which stipulates that the authorities in Up-to-date York will not cooperate with prosecution or other legal actions submitted against Up-to-date York abortion suppliers by other countries.

The provisions of abortion telemedicine, which were adopted by eight states, have become a significant way to provide access to abortion for women in the United States with bans, without requiring them to leave the state. Doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers in states with provisions regarding the shield sent over 10,000 abortion tablets per month to the states with prohibitions of abortion or restrictions.

Legal experts have found that the case is collecting legal wars about abortion and will almost certainly end in a federal court and perhaps in the Supreme Court. It is expected that it will become the main test whether states can apply criminal law for people operating outside.

Since the decision of the Supreme Court in 2022 in the Dobbs case against Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the national right to abortion, the United States has been divided between countries limiting abortion and countries protecting abortion.

“It was simply a feeling that if you were in blue, you are protected against the consequences of Dobbs,” said Mary Ziegler, a law professor and an abortion expert at the University of California, Davis. “People as undermined this assumption and we do not know exactly how and how much, but you cannot take it for granted.”

Federal courts will have to organize “where the line will be drawn, and even which precedents will be willing to appreciate,” she said. “It’s not clear what will happen.”

The indictment in Louisiana, through the great jury in the West Baton Rouge parish, follows the first civil lawsuit against the abortion supplier in a state of shield. This case was submitted in December by the Prosecutor General Texas, Ken Paxton, also against Dr. Carpenter, for rewriting and sending tablets to a woman in Texas.

On Friday, Tony Clayton, a district prosecutor who oversees the West Baton Rouge, said in an interview: “I just don’t know what theory the doctor can think that you should send your pills to Louisiana to stop the children of our citizens. “

He added: “The pill can be legal in Up-to-date York. This is not legal in Louisiana. “

In response to the allegations, Governor of Kathy Hochul from Up-to-date York in a film published on X“Under no circumstances will I never give this doctor into a state of Louisiana based on any request for extradition.” She promised “to do everything in my power to protect this doctor and let her continue the work he does is so necessary.”

The apply of abortion drugs has increased significantly in recent years. Drug abortions currently constitute almost two -thirds of pregnancy in the United States. The method is usually used for 12 weeks of pregnancy and includes two drugs – Mifepriston, which stops pregnancy from developing, and then a day or two later by mizoprostol, which causes cramps similar to miscarriage.

In 2021, the food and medicine administration raised a principle that requires patients personally obtaining mifepriston, enabling the drug to be sent by post.

The ability to send medicines, strengthened by the provisions regarding the shield, significantly hindered countries with prohibitions to prevent access to abortion. Actions intricate against Dr. Carpenter in Texas and Louisiana are part of the campaign limiting this access.

Opponents of abortion also press the Trump administration to revive the 151-year-old federal act of anti-parasis known as Act Comstock and apply it to prevent the shipment of abortion pills.

In the case in Louisiana, the great jury was accused by Dr. Carpenter and her medical practice for “criminal abortion with drugs that cause abortion.”

Dr. Carpenter of Up-to-date Paltz, NY, did not comment on the case on Friday, and the efforts to reach the lawyers representing her failed.

Court documents, which contain few details, indicate that the case concerned a girl under 18 years of age, whose mother ordered abortion pills and gave them in April 2024. The mother was also accused of violating the ban on abortion.

Mr. Clayton, West Baton Rouge District Prosecutor, said that the authorities realized after a police officer responded to the 911 phone given by a teenager.

“At that time, the officer thought he was dealing with a child who had a miscarriage,” said Clayton. After the police took the teenager to the hospital, the authorities learned that she took abortion and the investigation became a crime, he said.

Mr. Clayton, who refused to disclose age or other details about the girl, said that “evidence would show that the child planned to accept the disclosure” and did not want abortion. He said the allegations would not be made against the girl.

Police documents show that the mother, whose name The Up-to-date York Times does not reveal to protect her daughter’s identity, was arrested and released in Bond. Attempts to reach her on Friday failed.

“In this case, the allegations have nothing to do with reproductive health care,” said Liz Murill, prosecutor general. “It’s about coercion. It’s about forcing someone to an abortion that did not want her. “

The Prosecutor General of Up-to-date York, Letitia James, said in a statement: “This cowardly attempt to leave Louisiana to armament of law against suppliers outside the state is unfair and non -American.”

She added: “The abortion of drugs is unthreatening, effective and necessary, and Up-to-date York will ensure that it will remain available to all Americans.”

Dr. Carpenter is a specialist in the field of reproductive health and co -founder Abortion coalition for telemedicineAn organization that is in favor of access to the telerian abortion in all 50 states.

“The provisions on shields throughout the country enable licensed healthcare employees successfully to provide reproductive healthcare for patients in malnourished areas throughout the country,” said a coalition on Friday in a statement, adding: “This effort sponsored by the state in order to prosecute the doctor providing a doctor providing a unthreatening Place and effective care should alert everyone. “

Anti -abortion activists praised the allegations in Louisiana.

“In this matter, he reveals how abortion mail order drugs drive a compulsion epidemic, a recent form of domestic violence against mothers and their children,” said Katie Daniel, legal director at SBA Pro-Life America in a statement. Louisiana was praised in the statement for strengthening the regulations against abortion drugs and said: “In blue states, pro -abortion politicians perform polar opposite, protecting abortionists.”

In the lawsuit in Texas, Dr. Carpenter was accused of providing an abortion tablets of a 20-year-old woman in July. In the lawsuit, she said that the woman later asked the “biological father of her unborn child” to take her to the ambulance because of “severe bleeding”, and found out at that time that she was in nine weeks of pregnancy.

Mr. Paxton said that when he was filing a lawsuit in Texas, he tried to prevent the court to stop Dr. Carpenter from continuing abortion drugs to patients in Texas and the apply of a ban on abortion in Texas. The ban is punished in the amount of at least $ 100,000 for each violation.

Kirsten Noyes He contributed to the research.