|
Listen to article
|
The legal battle over abortion rights took another sharp turn as Texas’ Republican attorney general launched a lawsuit against a New York-based doctor accused of mailing abortion pills to a woman in the deeply conservative southern state.
This case, a flashpoint in the post-Roe era, underscores the growing interstate tensions over reproductive healthcare access and enforcement of restrictive abortion laws.
With some of the strictest abortion restrictions in the United States, Texas is once again at the center of a legal standoff. The case underscores the growing clash between states with opposing abortion laws, as Texas attempts to enforce its bans while others push back in defense of reproductive rights.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, on Thursday, filed a civil lawsuit targeting Margaret Carpenter, a prominent advocate for telemedicine-based abortion services and the founder of the New York-based Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine.
The case, a clear example of the widening legal conflict over reproductive rights, puts a spotlight on the expanding role of telemedicine in bridging access gaps.
Margaret Carpenter, according to the Texas Attorney General’s office, is accused of supplying a 20-year-old Texas woman with abortion pills that not only terminated her pregnancy but also caused significant medical complications.
This case is another chapter in the fierce battle over reproductive rights and the enforcement of restrictive abortion laws in Texas.
“Texas laws prohibit a physician or medical supplier from providing any abortion-inducing drugs by courier, delivery, or mail service,” it said.
In addition, “no physician may treat patients or prescribe Texas residents medicine through telehealth services unless the doctor holds a valid Texas medical license.”
Carpenter is not a licensed physician in Texas.
Read also: Beyonce Joins Harris In Texas To Support ‘Freedom’ To Abortion
Texas is seeking an injunction against Carpenter barring her from illegally practicing medicine in the state and from prescribing abortion pills to Texas residents. He is also seeking a $100,000 fine for each violation.
“In Texas, we treasure the health and lives of mothers and babies, and this is why out-of-state doctors may not illegally and dangerously prescribe abortion-inducing drugs to Texas residents,” Paxton said.
Democratic-controlled New York has passed a so-called shield law which provides legal protection to New York doctors who send abortion pills to women in states where the procedure has been outlawed.
Eighteen Democratic-ruled states have enacted shield laws since the US Supreme Court struck down the nationwide right to abortion in 2022, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.
In June of this year, the top court rejected a bid by anti-abortion groups to restrict mifepristone, the pill widely used to terminate pregnancies in the United States.
