A New York county clerk used the state’s shield law to stop Texas from punishing a New York doctor for prescribing and sending abortion medication to a Texas woman.
The move is the latest escalation in an interstate battle between New York and Texas, their differing abortion laws and the future of Margaret Carpenter, a New York state doctor who works at a telemedicine abortion organization.
In December, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Carpenter for violating the state’s abortion ban after she allegedly prescribed and mailed abortion medication to a 20-year-old Texan woman.
Neither Carpenter nor her lawyer responded to the lawsuit or showed up to a hearing regarding the charges in Texas last month, according to The New York Times.
A Texas judge ordered Carpenter last month to pay more than $100,000 in penalties for prescribing abortion medication to the Texas woman. The Texas attorney general’s office then followed up with the New York clerk’s office to see if it would enforce the default civil judgment.
But the country clerk refused.
“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,” said Acting Ulster County Clerk Taylor Bruck in a statement.
“Since the decision is likely to result in further litigation, I must refrain from discussing specific details about the situation.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James commended Bruck for the move.
“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,” James said in a statement. “My office will always defend New York’s medical professionals and the people they serve.”
New York is one of eight states that has enacted a telemedicine abortion shield law that protects providers from extradition requests and other legal actions from officials in states with abortion restrictions for helping or performing abortions.
Paxton said that the county clerk’s decision would not stop him from pursuing other avenues to enforce Texas’ abortion ban.
“I am outraged that New York would refuse to allow Texas to pursue enforcement of a civil judgment against a radical abortionist illegally peddling dangerous drugs across state lines. New York is shredding the Constitution to hide lawbreakers from justice, and it must end,” he said in a statement. “I will not stop my efforts to enforce Texas’s pro-life laws that protect our unborn children and mothers.”
Updated at 4:17 p.m. EDT
