New York Blocks Texas From Enforcing Abortion Law Against Doctor, Wields Shield Law for 1st Time

As Texas and Louisiana continue their efforts to punish New York’s Dr. Margaret Carpenter under their respective abortion bans, experts warn that we’re in for a thorny legal showdown.

By Kylie Cheung  |  March 27, 2025 | 1:42pm
Photo via Getty. AbortionPolitics Abortion
New York Blocks Texas From Enforcing Abortion Law Against Doctor, Wields Shield Law for 1st Time

The chilling saga of Texas’ quest to punish a New York abortion provider, Dr. Margaret Carpenter, for sending medication abortion to a Dallas woman continued this week, with important action taken by a New York county official. On Thursday, the acting clerk of Ulster County, Taylor Bruck, invoked New York’s shield law to bar Texas from punishing Carpenter. Shield laws protect health care workers from legal threats for providing abortion care to patients across state lines.

In December, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Carpenter for allegedly prescribing and sending the pills, which is legal—at least for now. In February, a district judge in Texas ordered Carpenter to pay a penalty of $113,000 and stop sending abortion medication to Texas. But Bruck says he will not grant Texas’ motion to enforce the Texas judge’s order. Per the New York Times, this is the first time a shield law has been used to protect a doctor from another state’s abortion laws.

“In accordance with the New York State Shield Law, I have refused this filing and will refuse any similar filings that may come to our office,” Bruck said in a statement. “Since this decision is likely to result in further litigation, I must refrain from discussing specific details about the situation.” New York Attorney General Letitia James praised Bruck’s actions in a separate statement: “New York’s shield law was created to protect patients and providers from out-of-state anti-choice attacks, and we will not allow anyone to undermine health care providers’ ability to deliver necessary care to their patients,” she said. “My office will always defend New York’s medical professionals and the people they serve.”

This conflict between New York and Texas is expected to continue, and could even make its way to the Supreme Court. Carpenter’s case is the first of its kind, but it won’t be the last: Texas was only able to bring forth its case against Carpenter because Paxton and anti-abortion activists in the state are reportedly recruiting abusive men to snitch on their partners’ abortions. The goal is to then use these tips to sue out-of-state doctors like Carpenter and try to challenge and throw out shield laws altogether. The anti-abortion organization Texas Right to Life told the New York Times last month we can expect additional lawsuits from these men soon. 

Carpenter, herself, faces even more legal troubles. In January, a Louisiana jury indicted Carpenter, also alleging that she sent abortion pills to a mother, who gave the medication to her teenage daughter. In February, Louisiana officials called on New York to extradite Carpenter to Louisiana to stand trial. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) refused: “Doctors take an oath to protect their patients. I took an oath of office to protect all New Yorkers, and I will uphold not only our constitution, but also the laws of our land,” she said. “I will not be signing an extradition order that came from the governor of Louisiana. Not now, not ever.”

For nearly two months now, Louisiana law enforcement officials have launched a smear campaign against Carpenter, with Louisiana’s attorney general, Liz Murrill, calling Carpenter “a drug dealer who victimized a child.” Murrill and other Louisiana officials, including Gov. Jeff Landry (R) and West Baton Rouge District Attorney Tony Clayton, have pushed the narrative that Carpenter and the Louisiana teen’s mother “coerced” her to take the pills, without providing any evidence. This, of course, is part of a long-running strategy of the anti-abortion movement to equate abortion access with abuse—even as anti-abortion activists are the ones openly colluding with predatory men to find abortion providers to sue.

While Carpenter remains, for the time being, protected by New York’s shield laws, all of this could become more complicated as Texas and Louisiana’s legal actions against her work their way through the legal system. In February, attorney Alejandra Caraballo, co-author of the 2023 CUNY law review article Extradition in Post-Roe America, told Jezebel the Constitution isn’t equipped to handle cases like this: “We haven’t seen this kind of disparity in state laws around human rights since the Civil War. What constitutes a human right in one state is a capital crime in another.”

According to Caraballo, Carpenter is essentially bound to stay in New York right now. Should she travel internationally, she could be apprehended by border patrol agents upon her return. And it’s not impossible that the Trump-run Justice Department would bring federal charges against her under the Comstock Act (a dormant, 1873 law that prohibits the mailing of “obscene” materials), nor is it impossible that Trump “will simply send federal marshals and bypass the extradition process,” Caraballo said.

Meanwhile, in Louisiana, the mother to whom Carpenter allegedly sent the pills earlier this month pleaded not guilty to the felony charge against her, where she faces the threat of five years in prison. Louisiana officials are also attempting to smear the mother as an abuser who “coerced” her daughter to take the pills—again, without a shred of evidence.

“We cannot continue to allow forced birth extremists to interfere with our ability to access necessary healthcare,” Chasity Wilson, executive director of the Louisiana Abortion Fund, said in February. “Extremists hope this case will cause a chilling effect, further tying the hands of doctors who took an oath to care for their patients.” 

 
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