Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a federal, civil lawsuit against Dr. Maggie Carpenter for practicing in Texas without a license and prescribing two abortion medications — mifepristone and misoprostal — to a Texas woman via telemedicine. Texas banned nearly all abortions after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
According to the filing, it was the father in the pregnancy who discovered the abortion, after the woman experienced complications that resulted in her going to the hospital.
The lawsuit is one of the first trying to prevent telemedicine providers from mailing abortion pills to states that ban it. It’s also the first test of New York’s “shield law” — one of several shield laws in states across the country — designed to protect providers and abortion advocates from retaliation.
“It’s definitely something we’ve expected to see, this kind of inter-state conflict around abortion," says Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis. "This is a question about states’ rights, right? And when states have to listen to one another.”
Ziegler says the suit leaves courts with a lot of questions, including: Does Texas even have the right to sue? Can New York sue back, as its shield law details? Should Texas law apply here, or New York, given that Carpenter is a telehealth provider? And if Paxton wins, will New York help enforce any penalties?
"That’s going to create constitutional questions that will ultimately be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court," says Ziegler.
Paxton wants the courts to apply Texas’ abortion ban to Carpenter, which would fine her at least $100,000 for each violation.
Carpenter did not personally respond to a request for comment from WAMC. In a statement, the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, which Carpetner co-founded, asserts medication abortion is a safe and “essential part of women’s healthcare,” adding: "Ken Paxton is prioritizing his anti-abortion agenda over the health and well-being of women by attempting to shut down telemedicine abortion nationwide.”
Democratic lawmakers in New York have decried the suit. Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement that she will do “everything in my power” to enforce New York’s shield law. Congressman Pat Ryan, a former Ulster County executive, called Carpenter a friend and a “fighter,” adding: “AG Paxton chose the wrong person to mess with.”
Speaking at an unrelated press conference in Athens Monday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer kept things brief.
“I believe that women should have the right to their healthcare, and I’m very hopeful that that suit will be rejected," he noted.
Twenty states have banned or heavily restricted abortion since the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade. The Court dismissed an attempt by anti-abortion groups to challenge the Food & Drug Administration’s approval for mifepristone earlier this year. Medication abortions, which are used to end pregnancies up to 12 weeks, accounted for more than half of all abortions in the U.S. last year.
Ziegler figures medication abortions and telehealth clinics are easier for states like Texas to target, rather than going after patients who travel out of state to receive care. She says it’s too soon to tell how this case will pan out, but she expects it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
“It’s going to be one of many lawsuits we see, and potentially prosecutions like this, in the New Year — in addition to lobbying of the Trump Administration to take steps at the federal level," she explains. "For example, to disallow telehealth access to abortion medication, or to use the Comstock Act, which is a 19th Century obscenity law, to essentially block the mailing of not just abortion pills, but any abortion-related paraphenalia.”
