Republican judge orders New York doctor to pay fine, stop providing abortion pills in Texas

A Texas judge on Thursday ordered a New York physician to stop supplying abortion pills in Texas and pay a $100,000 fine for providing the medication to a Dallas-area woman, the Associated Press reports.

The ruling likely sets up a larger court fight over “shield laws” Democrat-controlled states have enacted to protect abortion providers, according to multiple news organizations. More than half of U.S. abortions are carried out via medication, and patients in Texas and other states that have banned the procedure often use telemedicine to access the drugs from out-of-state doctors.

Collin Country District Judge Bryan Gantt issued Thursday’s ruling against abortion provider Dr. Margaret Carpenter after she failed to respond to a civil suit filed by Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton. Paxton, a Republican, alleged the physician violated the Lone Star State’s near-total ban on the procedure, Reuters reports.

Gantt, a Republican and former litigator for the Texas Attorney General’s Office, was appointed last year by Gov. Greg Abbott.

Carpenter is co-founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, a group that helps doctors navigate regulatory hurdles as they provide abortion medication through the mail, according to Reuters.

Gantt made the ruling the same day New York Gov. Kathy Hochul rejected a request from Louisiana to extradite Carpenter to face criminal charges there, the AP reports. That GOP-led state alleges the doctor broke the law by prescribing abortion medication to a pregnant minor.

“I will not be signing an extradition order that came from the governor of Louisiana,” Hochul said Thursday at a press conference covered by the AP. “Not now, not ever.”

An average of 2,800 Texans obtain abortion-inducing medications through the mail monthly, according to #WeCount, a tracking project from the Society of Family Planning.

In addition to Paxton’s first-of-its-kind lawsuit against Carpenter, Texas Republican lawmakers have filed bills seeking to give the state more power to close off access to abortion medications coming from outside the state.

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This article appears in Feb 5-18, 2025.