Louisiana’s AG Claims They’re Investigating NY Doctor for 2nd Abortion Pill Case; Offers No Proof

The state is trying to extradite Dr. Margaret Carpenter for allegedly sending pills to a mother to give to her teen. While testifying in favor of a new anti-abortion bill, Liz Murrill (R) claims they're now investigating her for a similar case.

By Kylie Cheung | May 13, 2025 | 12:58pm

Photo: Screenshot Abortion Latest Politics

Louisiana’s AG Claims They’re Investigating NY Doctor for 2nd Abortion Pill Case; Offers No Proof

In January, a Louisiana jury indicted a New York doctor, Margaret Carpenter, for allegedly mailing abortion pills into the state, which a mother then allegedly gave to her teenage daughter. Since, Louisiana’s attorney general has been unsuccessfully trying to extradite Carpenter in a bid to challenge New York’s shield laws, which protect health care workers from legal threats for providing abortion care to patients who live in states where abortion is banned.

And on Monday, while testifying in favor of a new anti-abortion bill, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill (R) said the state is now investigating Carpenter for allegedly mailing abortion pills to a different Louisiana resident.

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WWNO reports that Murrill made the allegations before Louisiana’s state House Civil Law and Procedure committee, while supporting state Rep. Lauren Ventrella’s (R) “Justice for Victims of Abortion Drug Dealers Act”—which would allow family members who suspect someone had an abortion to sue doctors, pharmacists, and even drug manufacturers for “causing” or facilitating the abortion. Murrill claims Carpenter shipped the pills to a couple, claiming the woman had an abortion 20 weeks into her pregnancy. She also alleged the unnamed couple discarded the fetal remains in a dumpster near their home and then went to the hospital, which directed them to bring the remains there.

As for the bill, WWNO further notes that it would allow everyday Louisiana residents to sue out-of-state physicians like Carpenter. It builds on the anti-abortion movement’s consistent strategy of weaponizing the legal system and incentivizing people to turn on their own community members and loved ones for profit. Telemedicine access to abortion pills accounts for 20% of all abortions in the U.S., so it’s also clearly trying to ban doctors in liberal states from mailing abortion pills into Louisiana.

Murrill is, at this time, the only source that’s put forth this story of the Louisiana couple. And the AG has proven to be wildly unreliable, spending months now pushing her entirely baseless claims that Carpenter is a “drug dealer who victimized a child,” with regard to the state’s existing criminal case against Carpenter. Murrill has yet to testify before a grand jury, thus far opting to smear Carpenter on Twitter.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) has maintained that “there’s no way in hell” the state would extradite Carpenter. Nonetheless, Louisiana’s aggressive legal efforts suggest the state is hoping to open the floodgates to target abortion providers everywhere. In February, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi met with Murrill and other top Louisiana law enforcement officials to, in part, discuss the state’s case against Carpenter. “We’re gonna need your help. I would like to see some consistency around the country that states just can’t harbor fugitives away from folks down here in Louisiana,” Tony Clayton, the West Baton Rouge-area district attorney who obtained the charges against Carpenter and the Louisiana mother, said to Bondi in front of reporters. Bondi replied, “I would love to work with you.”

Murrill also publicly warned Dr. Carpenter to “be careful with her travel plans” in a February tweet. In a statement to the Louisiana Illuminator at the time, Murrill implied Carpenter could face arrest if she sets foot in a GOP-led state: “The doctor could be arrested in other places. If New York won’t cooperate, there are other states that will.” (Interstate extradition, of course, is a lot more complicated than that.) And on top of all of this, Carpenter faces a civil suit brought forth by Texas in December for allegedly sending abortion pills to a Dallas woman.

“The problem that we have is that there are activists who are intent on sending these pills to people through the mail,” Murrill said of the “Justice for Victims of Abortion Drug Dealers Act” on Monday. She added, “We’re not going to stop trying to extradite [Carpenter] and prosecute her for the crimes that she’s committing in our state.”

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