A Louisiana grand jury on Friday indicted a New York physician for allegedly prescribing an abortion pill online in the Deep South state, which has one of the nation’s most stringent near-total abortion prohibitions.
Dr. Margaret Carpenter, her company, Nightingale Medical, PC, and a third party were indicted by grand jurors at the District Court for the Parish of West Baton Rouge.
A felony charge of criminal abortion by means of abortion-inducing medications was brought against all three.
At least since the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in 2022 and allowed states to enact stringent anti-abortion legislation, the case seems to be the first time a doctor has been charged with a crime for allegedly shipping abortion pills to another state.
In December, the Texas attorney general filed a lawsuit against Carpenter on similar charges of supplying the state with drugs. There were no criminal charges in that instance.
Only a few months have passed since Louisiana became the first state to categorize misoprostol and mifepristone as “controlled dangerous substances.” Medical professionals must take additional efforts to obtain the medications, but they are still permitted.
According to the law, a person who intentionally possesses misoprostol or mifepristone without a legitimate prescription for whatever reason faces a fine of up to $5,000 and a jail sentence of one to five years. Pregnant women who get the medication without a prescription and take it themselves are protected by the law.
Louisiana has had an almost complete prohibition on abortion since the demise of Roe v. Wade, with no exceptions for rape or incest.
Physicians who are found guilty of executing an illegal abortion, including one using pills, might be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison, fined up to $200,000, and have their medical license revoked.
“Make no mistake, since Roe v Wade was overturned, we’ve witnessed a disturbing pattern of interference with women’s rights,” the Abortion Coalition of Telemedicine, where Carpenter is one of the founders, stated. “It’s no secret the United States has a history of violence and harassment against abortion providers, and this state-sponsored effort to prosecute a doctor providing safe and effective care should alarm everyone.”
New York’s shield laws, which are designed to protect prescribers who use telehealth to give abortion pills to patients in jurisdictions where abortion is illegal, may be put to the test directly for the first time with Friday’s indictment.
“We always knew that overturning Roe v. Wade wasn’t the end of the road for anti-abortion politicians. That’s why I worked with the Legislature to pass nation-leading laws to protect providers and patients,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul stated.
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The shield legislation’s enforcer, Attorney General Letitia James, described the indictment as a “cowardly attempt” to “weaponize the law against out-of-state providers is unjust and un-American.”
“We will not permit bad actors to compromise our providers’ capacity to provide essential care,” James continued. New York will make certain that all Americans who require medication abortion can continue to access it because it is safe, effective, and essential.
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By 2023, over two-thirds of abortions performed in the United States will be performed by pills, making them the most popular method.
Additionally, they are at the center of abortion-related political and legal action. In January, a judge allowed three states to keep contesting federal government approvals for the prescription of one of the typically implicated medications.
