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mifepristone
Attacks on Shield Laws Ramp Up as NY Doctor Fined $100,000 for Providing Abortion in Texas
The Louisiana attorney general also tried to extradite the physician for sending medication abortion pills to a patient in the state.
Feb 14, 2025
Republican-controlled states' testing of abortion rights "shield laws" that have been passed in eight states in recent years ramped up on Thursday as a judge in Texas ordered a New York doctor to pay more than $100,000 in fines and fees for prescribing medication abortion pills to a 20-year-old woman in the Dallas area last year.
On the same day, the physician, Dr. Margaret Daley Carpenter of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine (ACT), was subject to a demand for extradition to Louisiana after a state grand jury last month indicted her for mailing misoprostol and mifepristone, pills that are used in a majority of abortions in the U.S., to the state.
The charges in Louisiana are the first criminal charges filed against an abortion provider in a state with a shield law, which bar officials and agencies from cooperating with lawsuits and prosecutions against healthcare professionals who send abortion pills to patients in states that ban abortion care. The laws have been passed as advocates in states where abortion care remains legal fight to ensure Americans across the country can still obtain care after the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton did not file criminal charges against Carpenter, but accused her in a lawsuit of violating the state's near-total abortion ban by providing the medication to a resident through the mail.
In the country's first ruling on a case involving a shield law, State District Judge Bryan Gantt ordered Carpenter to pay $100,000 in fines and $13,000 in attorneys' and other fees. He also ruled that Carpenter, who did not attend Thursday's court proceedings, "is permanently enjoined from prescribing abortion-inducing drugs to Texas residents."
Violating the ruling could result in a jail sentence for Carpenter.
Despite the ruling, ACT executive director Julie Kay toldThe Associated Press on Thursday that "patients can access medication abortion from licensed providers no matter where they live."
"ACT has and continues to stand behind New York and other shield laws across the country that enable the distribution of safe and effective telemedicine abortion care."
In December, ACT said medication abortion pills, which have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration since 2000 and have "been proven safe and effective globally for decades," are "an essential part of women's healthcare."
The Texas case is expected to eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court, where the right-wing majority could rule against legal protections for abortion providers who provide telemedicine for out-of-state patients—even as Republicans including President Donald Trump claim they believe abortion law should be left up to the states.
In Louisiana, Carpenter was indicted for allegedly violating the state's near-total abortion ban by sending pills for a girl who reportedly then experienced a medical emergency. The patient's mother has also been charged. If convicted, Carpenter could face up to 15 years in prison.
Republican state Attorney General Jeff Landry demanded her extradition to Louisiana, but New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said Thursday that she "will not be signing an extradition order that came from the governor of Louisiana. Not now, not ever."
ACT said Thursday that "ongoing attempts by anti-abortion state officials to restrict access to abortion care are inconsistent with New York state law."
"ACT has and continues to stand behind New York and other shield laws across the country that enable the distribution of safe and effective telemedicine abortion care," said the group.
The Texas case also reflects a dynamic that could lead to new prosecutions against abortion providers: those resulting from legal challenges filed by men whose partners receive abortion care.
In the case of the 20-year-old Texas resident, the patient was taken to a hospital in July by a man identified in legal filings as the "biological father of her unborn child."
After the man "started to suspect" the patient had used abortion pills and found the medications that had been prescribed by Carpenter and ACT, he "filed a complaint with the Texas attorney general's office."
The New York Timesreported that with Texas Right to Life, several men plan to file wrongful death lawsuits in the coming weeks against doctors and others who assisted their female partners in obtaining abortion care.
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Outrage as GOP AGs Argue Fewer Pregnant Teens Deprive States of Population Increases
"This is what potentially winning right-wing legal cases read like these days," said one progressive activist. "Dark stuff."
Oct 22, 2024
Opinion polls have repeatedly made clear that U.S. voters are turned off by the Republican Party's fixation on banning abortion care and controlling Americans' reproductive choices—but that didn't stop three GOP officials from writing in a court filing this month that they want to restrict abortion pill access because it would reduce teen pregnancy rates in their state.
"In my expert legal opinion, this is deeply gross and weird," wrote attorney and writer Madiba K. Dennie on Monday at Balls & Strikes, a news outlet focused on the judiciary.
Dennie was referring to a legal filing by Republican Attorneys General Andrew Bailey of Missouri, Kris Kobach of Kansas, and Raúl Labrador of Idaho in a case regarding mifepristone, one of two pills commonly used in medication abortions—which account for more than half of abortions in the United States.
As S.P. Rogers wrote at the newsletter Repro-Truth, attorneys general filed an amended complaint earlier this month in an effort to revive Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a case in which the plaintiffs argued in favor of severely restricting mifepristone access nationwide.
The three states had joined the case earlier this year, before the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the case based on the plaintiffs' lack of standing.
Because the high court didn't outright dismiss the case, the three attorneys general were able to file a complaint on October 11 seeking to prohibit mifepristone use for anyone under the age of 18 and overturn eased restrictions for the drug.
Bailey, Kobach, and Labrador argued that mifepristone access would could cause "injuries" to their states because it is "depressing expected birth rates for teenaged mothers."
"A loss of potential population causes further injuries as well: The [states'] subsequent 'diminishment of political representation' and 'loss of federal funds,' such as potentially 'losing a seat in Congress or qualifying for less federal funding if their populations are' reduced or their increase diminished," reads the court filing.
In other words, wrote Rogers, in the view of the Republican state officials, "teenage girls, which the states refer to as 'teenaged mothers,' exist for the purposes of churning out new citizens for the states."
"Idaho, Kansas, and Missouri are claiming to have a legitimate, sovereign state interest in forced birth—in teenage girls and women as breeders. It's an argument that positions everyone capable of birthing as brood mares—a scenario in which the state does not exist for the people, but the people for the state—and augurs a future claim for the prohibition of contraception," added Rogers.
Republicans including GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump have signaled their desire to roll back the right to contraception.
At Balls & Strikes, Dennie wrote that the GOP officials made clear that they believe "uteri are state slush funds, and girls owe the state reproduction once they are capable of it."
"A personal dislike of somebody else taking medicine is not a legitimate grievance," wrote Dennie. "So the states are trying to show that they are entitled to the population growth and accompanying funds that pregnant minors would produce, and the FDA is getting in the way of that."
While the argument is "shocking in its brazenness," added Dennie, it shouldn't come as a surprise in a country where the Republican Party has shown no sign of backing down from its goal of banning abortion, even as news reports mount about children who have been forced to give birth and pregnant patients who have died or become gravely ill because healthcare providers have refused to treat them for fear of prosecution.
The legal complaint, said Dennie, "is a natural outgrowth of the conservative legal movement's efforts to subordinate women."
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Trump Calls Abortion 'Much Less of an Issue' and Won't Say How He'll Vote in Florida
"Trump promised to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade, and he followed through with that promise," said the ACLU of Florida. "Reproductive freedom is on the ballot in Florida this November."
Aug 08, 2024
Republican former U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday tried to downplay the significance of reproductive freedom in this year's contest and refused to say how he plans to vote on a proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution that would outlaw pre-viability abortion bans.
The Republican presidential nominee gave a wide-ranging press conference from Mar-a-Lago, his residence in Palm Beach—an event featuring an "enormous number of lies and misrepresentations," as one critic put it, and which the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, described as a "public meltdown."
During the press conference, Trump said, "I think the abortion issue has been very much tempered down," adding that "it seems to be much less of an issue, especially for those where they have the exceptions."
As Common Dreams has reported, patients have been denied abortion care even when they should be covered by exceptions—generally for cases of rape, incest, or to protect the health or life of the pregnant person.
In response to Trump attempting to downplay the impact of abortion on the election, Daily Beast columnist Wajahat Ali said, "Ooof, this is a gift for Democrats."
Harris' campaign quickly shared on social media several videos of Trump's remarks from the press conference, including what he said about abortion.
Florida has banned abortions after six weeks—before many people even know they are pregnant—with limited exceptions. Trump was asked how he plans to vote on the ballot measure, which says that "no law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient's health, as determined by the patient's healthcare provider."
The ex-president refused to answer, instead saying: "Well, I'm gonna announce that. I'm gonna actually have a press conference on that at some point in the near future, so I don't want to tell you now. But Florida does have a vote coming up on that and I think probably the vote will go in a little more liberal way than people thought. But I'll be announcing that at the appropriate time."
Noting the comments, the ACLU of Florida—which supports the ballot measure—said on social media: "Reminder: In 2016, Trump promised to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade, and he followed through with that promise. Reproductive freedom is on the ballot in Florida this November. Vote yes on 4."
Whether Trump will be allowed to vote in Florida this November—after a New York jury in May found him guilty of 34 felony charges for falsifying business records related to hush money payments to cover up sex scandals during the 2016 election—will depend on whether and how he is sentenced, according to legal experts.
Trump attacked reproductive rights as president and has bragged about appointing half of the U.S. Supreme Court justices who reversedRoe with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision that triggered a wave of GOP state bans. However, he has also recently tried to distance himself from some harmful restrictions, recognizing them as politically risky.
Reproductive rights advocates have warned against falling for Trump's feigned inconsistency on the issue, taking aim at language in the Republican Party's 2024 platform and arguing that his selection of U.S. Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate shows that "a Trump administration will stop at nothing to ban all abortion" at the federal level.
U.S. House Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said on social media Thursday: "Let's be clear. Donald Trump and extreme MAGA Republicans will impose a nationwide abortion ban. Don't believe a word they say otherwise."
The Harris campaign highlighted Trump's response when asked whether he would direct the Food and Drug Administration to revoke access to mifepristone, which is often taken in tandem with misoprostol for medication abortions.
Seemingly suggesting that he is open to such action, Trump told reporters at the press conference, "You could do things that will—would supplement, absolutely, and those things are pretty open and humane."
In a statement about Trump's comments, Julie Chávez Rodriguez, the campaign manager for Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, said that "today Donald Trump made clear what his Project 2025 allies have been saying for months: If he is elected, he will use his power and every tool of the federal government to rip away access to medication abortion, effectively banning abortion nationwide in all 50 states."
"Already, women across the country are suffering because of the nightmare Donald Trump unleashed by overturning Roe v. Wade. That reality—women forced to the brink of death before receiving the care they need, doctors facing the threat of jail time for doing their jobs, and survivors of rape and incest made to flee their states for basic healthcare—will only get worse if Donald Trump wins and wipes out access to medication abortion," she warned. "The stakes this November couldn't be higher, and only one ticket is fighting to protect our freedoms: Vice President Harris and Gov. Tim Walz."
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