New York Gov. Kathy Hochul last week signed into law a bill to protect abortionists. The passage of the law, which will allow physicians to remove their names from prescriptions for abortion-inducing drugs, is in response to a grand jury indictment of Dr. Margaret Carpenter, a New York-based abortionist, who illegally sent abortion pills to the mother of a pregnant minor in Louisiana.

This may be the first time a pro-life state has criminally charged an abortion doctor for sending pills across state borders. Carpenter was civilly sued last year by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton after a woman she prescribed the abortion drugs to was admitted to the emergency room for excessive bleeding.

Carpenter is a co-founder of ACT, a group that promotes telemedicine abortion pills, specifically asking abortionists in states with shield laws to send these drugs illegally to women in all 50 states. In 2020 Carpenter also helped launch the controversial abortion group Hey Jane, which is a popular online purveyor of abortion pills.

After the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, a slew of states including New York enacted shield law legislation intended to protect abortionists who use telemedicine to prescribe abortion pills to women in different states. New York enacted its own shield law in June 2023; the Louisiana case will be a direct test to the constitutionality of these laws.

The Louisiana indictment revolves around a mother who coerced her underage pregnant daughter to take the abortion drugs. According to the prosecuting attorney Tony Clayton, the mother purchased abortion-inducing drugs for $150, filled out the online screener herself, and left them for her daughter to take at home. The underage daughter in question had already been planning a gender reveal party for her baby but was given an ultimatum by her mother to either abort or move out.

After taking the pills, she went to the emergency room. Authorities traced the prescription to Carpenter, which prompted Hochul to enact legislation allowing the removal of the names of providers from abortion pill prescriptions and ensuring attorneys in pro-life states will have a harder time finding the source of these prescriptions.

Louisiana is a state with a near total abortion ban and strict penalties for physicians who break that law. Penalties for physicians who perform an illegal abortion, chemical or otherwise, are a maximum of 15 years in prison, $200,000 in fines, and a loss of one’s medical license. In 2024 the state passed legislation specifically targeting abortion drugs.

This case has been an eye-opener to the use of abortion drugs to coerce girls and women into having an abortion against their will. Most notably in Texas, a man was sent to prison for slipping the abortion pill into his pregnant wife’s drinks, causing her to go into early labor; thankfully, her baby survived.

On Feb. 1, the state of Lousianna issued a warrant of arrest for Carpenter; however, Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James have both said they will not extradite her. With two states battling over jurisdiction in a criminal case, the Supreme Court is likely to be involved to settle the matter.