Should doctors who provide abortion pills to patients in states where abortion is illegal be prosecuted?
It comes after a jury indicted Ulster County-based Dr. Margaret Carpenter, of New Paltz, along with her company, Nightingale Medical, and the mother of a minor girl on Friday, Jan. 31, alleging that Carpenter shipped the girl an abortion pill.
The pill, Mifeprestone, caused the girl to have a medical emergency which terminated the pregnancy, Baton Rouge CBS affiliate WAFB reports. All three were charged with criminal abortion by means of abortion-inducing drugs, a felony.
"It is illegal to send abortion pills into this state and it's illegal to coerce another into having an abortion," Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said on X, formerly Twitter. "I have said it before and I will say it again: We will hold individuals accountable for breaking the law."
Hours after the indictment, however, Gov. Hochul vowed that her administration would not cooperate with extradition efforts, citing New York's so-called "shield law," which allows doctors to provide medication used to treat abortion to patients living in states that outlaw abortion.
"Louisiana is attempting to prosecute a New York doctor for providing reproductive health care. After Roe was overturned, I signed laws to protect patients & doctors from exactly this type of action," Hochul said on X. "We will not comply with an extradition request. We will remain a safe harbor."
Carpenter practices family medicine in New Paltz, according to her LinkedIn profile. She is also the co-founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, which works with doctors providing abortions in states where the act is illegal.
The criminal case is the first involving a doctor accused of sending abortion pills to another state since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, leaving abortion laws up to individual states.
What Do You Think? Should doctors who provide abortion pills to patients in states where abortion is illegal be prosecuted? Sound off in our poll above.