The Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, has now reportedly filed a lawsuit against a New York doctor, alleging that she broke state law by prescribing abortion medication to Texans through telehealth appointments.
The lawsuit filed on Friday is the initial legal test to determine the consequences of state abortion laws that conflict with one another.
In Texas, both surgical and medication abortions are prohibited.
New York, like numerous other liberal-leaning states, has a shield law in place that safeguards providers from out-of-state investigations and prosecutions if they prescribe or send abortion medication to individuals residing in states with abortion restrictions.
Paxton’s lawsuit accuses Margaret Daley Carpenter, a physician and co-founder of The Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine (ACT) in New York, of prescribing and mailing abortion medication to a 20-year-old pregnant woman in Collin County, Texas, during a telehealth appointment.
The medication subsequently caused “an adverse event” that resulted in a medical abortion.
According to the organization’s website, ACT is a radical pro-abortion group that was established following the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade.
It facilitates the connection between individuals seeking abortions and clinicians who are licensed in states where telemedicine abortion providers are protected by law.
Carpenter also collaborates with AidAccess and Hey Jane, which offer telehealth services for emergency contraception, birth control, and abortions.
Two shipments of abortion medications and instructions were sent to Carpenter’s 20-year-old patient following a telehealth visit this past spring, according to the lawsuit.
Mifepristone and misoprostol are the two medicines that are typically employed in medication abortions.
Mifepristone prevents the progression of the pregnancy, while misoprostol induces cramping and bleeding to empty the uterus.
The first was a package that contained 200 mg of mifepristone and was labeled “#1.”
The box also included instructions to consume one tablet orally.
The second item was a bottle of 200 mcg misoprostol tablets, which were to be taken four tables after the mifepristone pill.
Paxton is requesting an injunction to prevent Carpenter from continuing to provide abortion care via telehealth to Texas and to require her to pay $100,000 for each violation of the state’s near-total abortion prohibition.
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