Judge Fines New York Doctor for Mailing Abortion Pills to Texas Woman

By: David Zimmermann, originally published February 14, 2025, National Review

A Texas judge fined a New York doctor more than $100,000 on Thursday for prescribing and mailing abortion pills to a Texas woman, dealing a legal blow to shield laws in blue states where abortion remains legal.

udge Robert Gantt, whose jurisdiction lies in Collin County, Texas, issued a civil penalty worth $100,000 and a permanent injunction barring Dr. Margaret Carpenter from prescribing abortion medication to Texas residents through telemedicine without having a medical license in that state. In addition to the $100,000 penalty, Carpenter must pay attorney and legal fees.

The physician did not appear in court after being notified, Gantt noted in the order.

The ruling represents a victory for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who filed a civil lawsuit against Carpenter in December for providing abortion-inducing drugs to a 20-year-old woman in Collin County.

The unnamed woman took the abortion medication in July when she was nine weeks pregnant, the lawsuit recounts. She suffered severe bleeding and ultimately lost her unborn child. The biological father, who took the mother to a nearby hospital, was not aware she was pregnant or taking abortion medication.

Carpenter, founder and co-medical director of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine Access, sent mifepristone and misoprostol to the pregnant woman, per the lawsuit.

In response to the court order, the group’s executive director told the Associated Press that “patients can access medication abortion from licensed providers no matter where they live.”

The litigation marked the first challenge to interstate shield laws that over a dozen Democratic states have adopted to protect abortion access and medication following the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

New York enacted such a law in June 2023 to protect abortion providers from out-of-state investigations and prosecutions.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she would not comply with Louisiana’s request to extradite the same doctor who was charged in Texas. This time, however, the medical professional is facing criminal charges in Louisiana.

“I will not be signing an extradition order that came from the governor of Louisiana,” Hochul said on Thursday. “Not now, not ever.”

Louisiana also served an out-of-state warrant for Carpenter’s arrest, alleging the doctor prescribed and mailed chemical abortion pills to a minor in the southern state. The minor ended up losing her pregnancy.

“There’s only one right answer in this situation,” Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry said in a video explaining his reasons for seeking Carpenter’s extradition. “It is that that doctor must face extradition to Louisiana, where she can stand trial and justice will be served. We owe that to the minor, and to the innocent loss of life, and to the people of this state who stand by life overwhelmingly.”

The Louisiana case is the first instance of a doctor facing criminal charges for prescribing abortion pills to a resident in another state.

Louisiana and Texas both have similar near-total abortion bans, restricting the practice at all stages of pregnancy in most cases with some exceptions.

“In Texas, we will always protect innocent life and uphold the laws that protect mothers and unborn babies,” Paxton said. “Radical out-of-state doctors will not be allowed to peddle dangerous and illegal drugs in Texas to kill unborn babies. Any doctor attempting to do so will be punished to the full extent of the law.”

David Zimmermann is a news writer for National Review.