Abortion Shield Laws Under Threat
Yesterday a judge in Collin County ruled that a New York doctor must cease prescribing and sending abortion medication to patients in Texas. He also fined the New York-based physician over $100,000.
The judgment stemmed from a civil lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in December after a woman in North Texas received abortion pills through a telehealth service based out of New York. Paxton’s lawsuit, and this subsequent ruling, are the first overtures abortion ban states have made against shield laws.
New York is one of several blue states with shield laws, which are supposed to protect medical providers from lawsuits and investigations from other states. The doctor nor her attorneys at the center of the Texas lawsuit appeared in the Collin County courthouse.
The doctor is also facing criminal charges in Louisiana, which convened a grand jury after a woman in that state received abortion pills through her telehealth service. New York Governor Kathy Hochul has vowed to not sign an extradition order from Louisiana for the doctor. In Louisiana, the mother of the patient who received abortion pills was arrested but posted bond.
Both the lawsuits in Texas and Louisiana will likely make it to the Supreme Court though it remains to be seen when or how exactly. Such a move could dramatically curtail abortion access even further in the United States, where nearly 63 percent of all abortions occurred via medication.
Appearing on Fox News last night after he was sworn in as Health and Human Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told host Laura Ingraham that Trump has called for a “study” about the safety of medication abortion. Mifepristone, one of the two drugs used in a medication abortion, was approved for use in the United States in 2000 and is safer than Tylenol.
