Texas judge orders New York doctor to pay $100,000 for prescribing abortion pills

The ruling, issued Thursday by State District Judge Bryan Gantt, also prohibits Dr. Maggie Carpenter from prescribing abortion medication to Texas residents. The lawsuit, filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in December, accused Carpenter of violating state law by prescribing abortion pills via telemedicine. Texas has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country.

Carpenter, who did not appear in court despite being notified, was also ordered to pay attorney’s fees.

On the same day as the Texas ruling, New York Governor Kathy Hochul rejected Louisiana’s request to extradite Carpenter, who faces criminal charges there for prescribing abortion pills to a pregnant minor.

“I will not be signing an extradition order that came from the governor of Louisiana,” Hochul said at a news conference in Manhattan. “Not now, not ever.”

Hochul also instructed New York law enforcement not to cooperate with out-of-state warrants related to abortion laws, reinforcing New York’s “shield law,” which protects medical providers who prescribe abortion medication to patients in states where the procedure is restricted.

Carpenter, co-medical director and founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, continues to defend her work. The organization’s executive director, Julie Kay, stated that Texas’ ruling does not override shield laws and reaffirmed that “patients can access medication abortion from licensed providers no matter where they live.”

The Louisiana case against Carpenter is the first known criminal prosecution of a doctor accused of prescribing abortion pills to someone in another state. Louisiana prosecutors claim the minor who took the medication experienced complications and was hospitalized. The girl’s mother has also been charged and turned herself in to authorities.

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, a Republican, insists Carpenter must be extradited to face trial. "There is only one right answer in this situation, and it is that the doctor must stand trial in Louisiana where justice will be served," he said in a video statement Thursday.

Texas Attorney General Paxton has argued that Carpenter’s actions endangered the health of a 20-year-old woman who was hospitalized after taking the abortion pills. Texas’ lawsuit claims the woman's partner only learned of the pregnancy and abortion after the medical emergency.

Abortion medication has become the most common method of abortion in the U.S., making it a focal point of legal and political disputes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Cases like Carpenter’s will test the limits of state authority, raising critical questions about whether conservative states can enforce their abortion laws across state lines and how much protection shield laws in states like New York can offer medical providers.